I am pleased to announce that, following consideration of the responses to public consultation, I have today laid before Parliament the Waste Management (England and Wales) regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006 No. 937), The Environment Act 1995 (Commencement No. 23) (England and Wales) Order 2006 (2006 No. (C. 934)) and a final regulatory impact assessment.The effect of section 75(7)(c) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 is to exclude waste from premises used for agriculture, and waste from mines and quarries, from the waste management controls that apply to "controlled waste". The main purpose of the regulations is to repeal that exclusion and to apply to agricultural waste, and to non-mineral waste from mines and quarries, the national controls that are already in place to comply with the Waste Framework Directive (75/442/EEC as amended) and the Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC).The exclusion in section 75(7) (c) of the 1990 Act has been the subject of infraction proceedings on the Waste Framework Directive. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued an adverse judgment on this infraction on 16 December 2004 (Case C-62/03) and a copy is available on the Court's website at http://curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgi-bin/ form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&docj= docj&numaff=C-62%2F03&datefs=&datefe= &nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100. The exclusion also applies to the legislation transposing the Landfill Directive in England and Wales.At present, most agricultural waste is disposed of on farm in "farm dumps" or by open burning. The regulations will ensure that agricultural waste is recovered or disposed of in ways which protect the environment and human health. The controls will be enforced by the Environment Agency, as the "competent authority" in England and Wales, in ways which are proportionate to the risk to the environment and human health. The existing controls have applied to all other sectors of industry and types of waste since May 1994 in the case of the Waste Framework Directive; and since June 2002 in the case of the Landfill Directive.The main consultation paper was sent to 495 organisations and a summary, with a pull-out questionnaire, was sent to 162,000 farmers and growers in England and Wales. There were 103 responses to the main consultation and 2,485 responses to the summary questionnaire. A consultation report has been prepared in compliance with the Cabinet Office "Code of Practice on Consultation" and is available on my Department's website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/agwaste.htmThe regulations come into force on Monday 15 May 2006. The Landfill Directive's requirements, section 33(1 )(c) of the 1990 Act and the duty of care under section 34 of the Act will apply from that date. However, the regulations contain transitional provisions which allow farmers six months from that date to register with the Environment Agency to transport agricultural waste on a professional basis or as a dealer or broker; and allow farmers 12 months to apply to the Agency for waste management licences, to dispose of or recover agricultural waste on-farm, or to register licensing exemptions.A wide range of licensing exemptions will be available to farmers. As a result of discussions with the Agricultural Waste Stakeholders' Forum and public consultation, we have identified proposals for more licensing exemptions for agricultural waste covering the use of drum incinerators, waste disposal in the event of a plant health disease outbreak, the use of ash from the incineration of non-SRM pig and poultry carcasses, the use of biobeds for pesticide residues and the use of dredgings from ditch clearances. We propose to carry out a supplementary consultation exercise on these proposals for more licensing exemptions during the 12-month transitional period before the regulations' waste management licensing provisions come fully into force.The regulations also contain related or consequential amendments to existing regulations. The main amendments are:To ensure continuing compliance with the Waste Framework Directive following the repeal of the Animal Waste Directive (90/667/EEC) and the introduction of the EU Animal By-Products Regulation ((EC) No. 1774/2002) which lays down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption. The proposed amendments apply to animal by-products which are waste within the meaning of Article 1(a) of the Waste Framework Directive and are not excluded from the Directive's scope under Article 2;To repeal regulation 15 of the Waste Management Licensing regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994 No. 1056 (as amended)) and to amend the Groundwater regulations 1998 (S.I. 1998 No. 2746 (as amended)) to bring waste management licensing into line with other types of "authorisations" for the purposes of complying with the Groundwater Directive (80/68/EEC); andTo address another aspect of the ECJ's adverse judgment on the Waste Framework Directive infraction by amending section 33(2) of the 1990 Act to provide that section 33(1) (c) applies to household waste from a domestic property; and so to prohibit the disposal etc. of such waste by private individuals, within the curtilage of the property, in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health. The prohibition already applies to any mineral or synthetic oil or grease, asbestos and clinical waste by virtue of regulation 3(1) of the Controlled Waste regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992 No. 588).

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