Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Chairperson (Mr Butler): I welcome the following officials, who are here to brief the Committee and answer any questions. We have with us Mr Colin Breen, the assistant director of the environmental resources policy division (ERPD), and Mrs Carmel McDowell, the head of the waste legislation branch at the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. Thank you very much. Would you like to start your briefing?

Mrs Carmel McDowell (Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs): Yes, thank you.

Mr Chairman and Committee members, thank you for the opportunity to come to the Committee to provide a summary of the information in your pack that relates to the proposed Waste (Fees and Charges) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025. The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) operates an annual charging policy for regulatory activities. The charging policy covers eight separate charging schemes, of which the waste management charging scheme is one. The waste management charging scheme requires legislation to be laid in order to make it operational. The NIEA charging policy is governed by the principles of 'Managing Public Money Northern Ireland' ('MPMNI') and operates under a model of full cost recovery. That means that the agency charges operators of regulated activities the full cost of those regulatory activities and that they are not subsidised by the taxpayer.

The fees and charges that are covered by the charging policy are uplifted annually. They are normally uplifted by the GDP deflator figure that the Treasury issues in December each year. The policy, however, allows for the Department to apply any other mechanism, as is deemed appropriate, to ensure the maintenance of full cost recovery, thus preventing any departmental losses. After analysis by the NIEA finance branch, it was agreed that the fees and charges for 2024-25 should be uplifted by 9·5%. That covers two separate and distinct payroll years, with different rates applied, and includes associated employer pay costs. That uplift applies to the schemes in the NIEA charging policy for 2024-25. Had the agency used the 2024-25 GDP deflator figure of 0·8%, as issued by the Treasury, it would have lost an estimated £1 million in fees and charges across all the charging schemes. That would then have had to be paid out of the public purse.

Normally, the statutory rule (SR) that is required to bring the waste management charging scheme into operation each year is laid by negative resolution. These regulations, however, are made under schedule 4 to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which stipulates that the regulations will be subject to the draft affirmative resolution procedure, unless they are altering only a fee or charge to reflect changes in the value of money. The fees and charges are being uplifted by using a figure that is not a standard inflationary measure, so the Waste (Fees and Charges) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025 are required to be laid by draft affirmative resolution.

If you have any questions, Colin and I will be happy to answer them, where possible.

The Chairperson (Mr Butler): Thank you so much for the papers and the presentation.

I have a couple of brief questions, if that is OK. The SR will be laid by draft affirmative resolution, so we will get another chance to discuss it. What are the fees and fines in the rest of the UK at the moment for comparative years?

Mrs McDowell: I do not know fully, but I understand that the guidance, which insists on full cost recovery, is statutory and applies throughout the UK, so the other parts of the UK will be under the same obligation to apply full costs.

The Chairperson (Mr Butler): My next question does not relate to the legislation. Do agencies in other jurisdictions also base their cost recovery on their running costs, as you mentioned? Is their model for cost recovery the same as the NIEA's? Are the bodies similar in each of the jurisdictions?

Mrs McDowell: Yes.

The Chairperson (Mr Butler): OK. Thank you.

No members have any other questions on the SR, so thank you very much. You will probably never have a shorter evidence session. I will just check online. Nicola has not indicated either, so we are good.

The regulations are subject to the draft affirmative resolution procedure, so they will be debated at a plenary sitting. If there are no other comments to be made, I ask whether members are content to support the SR, as drafted, in the debate?

The Chairperson (Mr Butler): Thank you very much, members.

Carmel and Colin, thank you very much for your presentation and time today.