On 7 January 2019 the Environmental Protection (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2018/1227 began to come into force.
They make various amendments, including changes to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to insert provisions giving power to certain authorities in England to serve notices offering a person the opportunity of discharging any liability to conviction under the new household duty of care for waste.
It is now an offence to fail to take measures to make sure that the transfer of household waste is only to certain authorised persons.
They also amend various provisions of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2016/1154, including amendments relating to:
These will come fully into force on 7 April 2019, and aim to strengthen the assessment and enforcement of operator competence by requiring the operator to periodically supply the regulator with information that demonstrates that they comply with recognised competence standards. So as a result, Competence Management Systems (CMS) are a recognised alternative to WAMITAB.
The standard is now UKAS accredited through LRQA and is recognised by the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales as a method of demonstrating technical compliance on permitted sites where a technically competent person needs to be present as part of the permitted operational requirements.
CMS is a bespoke system designed to meet the requirements of a site's environmental permit. It can be incorporated into current environmental and quality management systems (ISO 14001 and 9001) and certificates a whole business as competent instead of an individual. This means that attendance hours for technically competent persons is no longer an issue, as the whole business is certified as competent.
