The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024

72 Adjustments to disposal costs: effective service

(1) In each assessment year commencing with the 2028 assessment year, the scheme administrator must assess the extent to which each relevant authority is providing an effective waste management service in relation to household packaging waste (an “effectiveness assessment”). (2) The scheme administrator may also make effectiveness assessments in the 2026 and 2027 assessment years if it is satisfied that it has sufficient data to make those assessments in relation to all relevant authorities for that assessment year. (3) In making an effectiveness assessment in relation to a relevant authority, the scheme administrator may consider the following factors, where relevant to the relevant authority, together with any other factors the scheme administrator considers relevant— (a) the amount of household packaging waste in each packaging category likely to be managed by the relevant authority in the assessment year; (b) the proportion of that packaging waste which is being recycled by or on behalf of the relevant authority; (c) any factors specific to the relevant authority or to the area in relation to which the relevant authority exercises its waste management functions, which in the opinion of the scheme administrator are likely to affect the performance of that relevant authority, including but not limited to the factors referred to in regulation 73(1)(c); (d) government policies on waste management in any part of the United Kingdom, and regulatory requirements affecting waste management, so far as they are relevant to the relevant authority; (e) the waste management service provided by other relevant authorities in a comparable position to the first relevant authority; (f) how much household packaging waste a relevant authority in a comparable position to the first relevant authority would be able to manage in a year through recycling, other recovery operations and disposal operations if it was following good practice in waste management. (4) The scheme administrator must take into account any factors referred to in paragraph (3)(c)— (a) in making an effectiveness assessment in relation to a relevant authority for the 2027 assessment year, or for a later assessment year; (b) in assessing, as part of an effectiveness assessment for any assessment year, whether a relevant authority is in a comparable position to other relevant authorities for the purposes of paragraph (3)(e) and (f). (5) In assessing what amounts to good practice for the purposes of paragraph (3)(f), the scheme administrator may consider local, national or international examples of good practice. (6) If the scheme administrator assesses that a relevant authority is not providing an effective waste management service it must— (a) give notice in writing to the relevant authority, setting out the reasons why the scheme administrator considers that the authority is not providing an effective waste management service; (b) provide the relevant authority with a reasonable opportunity to discuss with the scheme administrator— (i) the scheme administrator’s assessment; (ii) the waste management service being delivered by the relevant authority in relation to packaging waste; and (iii) how that service can be improved to make it more effective; (c) after complying with sub-paragraphs (a) and (b), propose actions for the relevant authority to take to improve its waste management service so that it is providing an effective waste management service (“improvement actions”). (7) Paragraph (8) applies if, at the expiry of a period specified by the scheme administrator to the relevant authority when proposing improvement actions, the scheme administrator considers that the relevant authority— (a) is still not providing an effective waste management service; and (b) is not doing everything the authority can be reasonably expected to do to improve its waste management service in order to provide an effective waste management service. (8) Where this paragraph applies, the scheme administrator may adjust the chargeable disposal costs of the relevant authority for the following assessment year, by applying to the relevant authority’s net efficient disposal costs a reduction of such percentage as the scheme administrator considers appropriate to take account of the extent to which the waste management service provided by the authority is not an effective one. (9) But the scheme administrator may not reduce the chargeable disposal costs of a relevant authority for an assessment year to an amount which is less than 80% of its net efficient disposal costs for that year. (10) Where the scheme administrator reduces a relevant authority’s chargeable disposal costs under paragraph (8), it must calculate— (a) the relevant authority’s chargeable disposal costs for each packaging category of household packaging waste that the relevant authority is likely to manage in the assessment year, by applying the percentage reduction determined under paragraph (8) to the relevant authority’s net efficient disposal costs for each such category as calculated under regulation 71(3); and (b) the relevant authority’s total chargeable disposal costs, by applying that percentage reduction to the relevant authority’s total net efficient disposal costs as calculated under regulation 71(4). (11) In this regulation— (a) references to providing an effective waste management service are to providing an effective waste management service in relation to household packaging waste; and (b) in paragraph (8), “the following assessment year” means the assessment year after the assessment year in which the scheme administrator makes a determination under paragraph (7).