Producer Responsibility Obligations (Northern Ireland) Order 1998
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1998/1762 |
1998 No. 1762 (N.I. 16)
NORTHERN IRELAND
Producer Responsibility Obligations (Northern Ireland) Order 1998
Made 21th July 1998
Coming into operation 22th September 1998
At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 21st day of July 1998
Present,
The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty in Council
Whereas a draft of this Order has been approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament:
Now, therefore, Her Majesty, in exercise of the powers conferred by paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the1Northern Ireland Act 1974 and of all other powers enabling Her in that behalf, is pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows:—
Title and commencement
1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Northern Ireland) Order 1998.
(2) This Order shall come into operation on the expiration of two months from the day on which it is made.
Interpretation
2.—(1) The 2Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 shall apply to Article 1 and the following provisions of this Order as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
(2) In this Order—
“certificate of compliance” means a certificate issued by a person approved for the purpose by the Department to the effect that that person is satisfied that the person in respect of whom the certificate is issued is complying with any producer responsibility obligation to which he is subject;
“competition scrutiny”, in the case of any scheme, means scrutiny of the scheme for the purpose of enabling the Secretary of State to satisfy himself—
(i) whether or not the scheme has or is likely to have the effect of restricting, distorting or preventing competition or, if it appears to him that the scheme has or is likely to have any such effect, that the effect is or is likely to be no greater than is necessary for achieving the environmental or economic benefits mentioned in Article 3(6); or
(ii) whether or not the scheme leads or is likely to lead to an abuse of market power;
“the Department” means the Department of the Environment;
“exemption scheme” means a scheme which is (or, if it were to be registered in accordance with the regulations, would be) a scheme whose members for the time being are, by virtue of the regulations and their membership of that scheme, exempt from the requirement to comply with the producer responsibility obligation imposed by the regulations;
“operator”, in relation to an exemption scheme, includes any person responsible for establishing, maintaining or managing the scheme;
“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations;
“product” and “material” include a reference to any product or material (as the case may be) at a time when it becomes, or has become, waste;
“producer responsibility obligation” means the steps which are required to be taken by relevant persons of the classes or descriptions to which the regulations in question apply in order to secure attainment of the targets specified or described in the regulations;
“records” includes computer records and any other records kept otherwise than in a document;
“recovery”, in relation to products or materials, includes—
(a) composting, or any other form of transformation by biological processes, of products or materials; or
(b) the obtaining, by any means, of energy from products or materials;
“registered exemption scheme” means an exemption scheme which is registered pursuant to regulations;
“regulations” means regulations under Article 3;
“relevant persons”, in the case of any regulations or any producer responsibility obligation, means persons of the class or description to which the producer responsibility obligation imposed by the regulations applies;
“relevant targets” means the targets specified or described in the regulations imposing the producer responsibility obligation in question;
“statutory provision” has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(f) of the3Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954.
(3) Regulations may prescribe, in relation to prescribed products or materials, activities, or the activities, which are to be regarded for the purposes of this Order or any regulations as re-use, recovery or recycling of those products or materials.
Producer responsibility: general
3.—(1) For the purpose of promoting or securing an increase in the re-use, recovery or recycling of products or materials, the Department may by regulations make provision for imposing producer responsibility obligations on such persons, and in respect of such products or materials, as may be prescribed.
(2) The power of the Department to make regulations shall be exercisable only after consultation with persons appearing to the Department to be representative of persons whose interests are, or are likely to be, substantially affected by the regulations which it proposes to make.
(3) Except in the case of regulations for the implementation of—
(a)
(a) any obligations of the United Kingdom under the Community Treaties; or
(b)
(b) any international agreement to which the United Kingdom is for the time being a party,
the power to make regulations shall be exercisable only where the Department, after such consultation as is required by paragraph (2), is satisfied as to the matters specified in paragraph (6).
(4) The powers conferred by paragraph (1) shall also be exercisable, in a case falling within sub-paragraph (a) or (b) of paragraph (3), for the purpose of sustaining a minimum level of (rather than promoting or securing an increase in) re-use, recovery or recycling of products or materials.
(5) In making regulations by virtue of sub-paragraph (a) or (b) of paragraph (3), the Department shall have regard to the matters specified in paragraph (6); and in its application in relation to the power conferred by virtue of paragraph (4), paragraph (6) shall have effect as if—
(a)
(a) any reference to an increase in the re-use, recovery or recycling of products or materials were a reference to the sustaining of a minimum level of re-use, recovery or recycling of the products or materials in question; and
(b)
(b) any reference to the production of environmental or economic benefits included a reference to the sustaining of a minimum level of any such existing benefits,
and any reference in this Article or Article 4 to securing or achieving any such benefits shall accordingly include a reference to sustaining a minimum level of any such existing benefits.
(6) The matters mentioned in paragraphs (3) and (5) are—
(a)
(a) that the proposed exercise of the power would be...
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