HSE publishes guidance on waste management procurement as MPs slam Defra strategy

The Health & Safety Executive this week issued guidance on waste management procurement that is designed to help local authorities discharge their legal responsibilities.

The move came as an influential group of MPs sharply criticised the government’s waste strategy for leaving England’s waste mountain with no clear targets for its reduction, and 90% of waste without specific recycling targets.

The HSE guidance covers both the procurement process and the subsequent management of the service or contract, whether the council provides it in-house or contracts it out.

“The principles [in the guidance] set out good management practice for delivering waste services and should be applied to the design, selection and management of waste delivery service – no matter who it is provided by,” the HSE said. “Health and safety considerations must be an integral part of the procurement and contract management processes for waste services.”

The agency added that where the service is provided in-house, more formal, accountability relationships between those in client and provider roles within authorities may need to be established if the principles are to be effectively established.

Health and safety considerations must be applied at all stages of the contract management cycle for delivery of waste and recycling services, whether that is setting out the specification and requirements of the contract/service, evaluation and selection of the contract/service and management of the contract/service.

“Given the cyclical and often intense nature of contract management, as client you must allow sufficient time (and resources) to properly undertake the whole process,” the HSE added. “It is particularly important to avoid slippage and delay at early ‘lead-in’ stages, which could result in pressure on, and adversely affect, service mobilisation and safe systems of work being put in place right from the start.”

Meanwhile, in a damning report, the environment, food and rural affairs select committee claimed government knowledge of commercial and industrial recycling rates is “patchy and outdated”. Instead, the MPs said, Defra’s waste strategy concentrates its efforts on achieving improved recycling rates in the domestic sector which only accounts for 10% of England’s waste.

The report added that Defra’s 2007 strategy was “long on rhetoric but short on a detailed action plan to deliver a low waste society”.

Calling on the government to set tougher recycling targets, the MPs said local authorities should be required to provide all householders with information each year on what happens to the waste they put out for recycling. In addition, Defra should help councils explain the benefits that arise from households reducing their waste volumes.

Other suggested measures include:

• Increasing the funding provided for the enforcement of waste regulation
• Setting a target for mandatory collection of food waste
• Ensuring that local authorities are using their available powers fully to discharge their responsibilities to prevent fly-tipping and littering
• Evaluating the practicalities of applying a small “clean up” levy to products such as cigarettes, drinks and confectionary, whose packaging contributes the largest volumes of litter, to support local authorities to clean up their neighbourhoods.

Michael Jack MP, chairman of the committee, said: “Defra must give a clear lead on what it thinks the potential is for business to reduce its waste levels and increase in its rates of recycling. At the same time it must encourage companies to take a completely new view of waste and see it as a valuable source of raw material which must not be squandered in these difficult economic times.”

Also this week, the government launched a consultation on draft guidance relating to the legal definition of waste and its application. The aim of the guidance is to help businesses and other organisations take the right decisions about the classification of substances as waste, particularly in more difficult cases.

The guidance is split into three parts: a practical guide; the background to and the rationale for the draft guidance; and detailed guidance on the case law on the definition of waste.