Part 3: Waste and Resource Efficiency Section 65: Waste charging: Northern Ireland
Section 65 amends the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 and the Waste Management Licensing Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 to supplement existing charging powers available to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
	Subsection (1) adds new Article 76A to the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 to provide the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs with a power to prescribe charges to be paid to it in relation to costs incurred by it in performing the functions referred to in paragraph (2) of that Article. These functions are functions set out in a number of pieces of subordinate legislation, including Article 4(1) of that Order (Prohibition on unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal etc., of waste) and regulation 18(1) of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003. This allows for fees to be charged for interventions at unlicensed waste sites or those in breach of a licence.
	Other functions referred to in Article 76A(2) relate to extended producer responsibility. These are functions conferred by regulations made under Schedule 4 or 5 to this Act, the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations 2003, the End-of-Life Vehicles (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2005, the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009, and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013. These functions allow the Department to levy fees in relation to its prescribed requirements in existing and future producer responsibility regimes.
	Any charging scheme made under the powers that Article 76A will provide must describe who is liable to pay specified charges, and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs must consult such persons as it considers to be appropriate before making any charging scheme under the Article.
	Subsection (2) makes provision about how Article 76A(2)(c) of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 has effect prior to the repeal of Article 3 of the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 ("the 1998 Order"). This ensures that the power to create a charging scheme in new Article 76A(2)(c) of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 can apply to functions conferred by regulations made under Article 3 of the 1998 Order, as well as functions conferred by regulations made under Schedule 4 or 5 to this Act, until the repeal of Article 3 of the 1998 Order by this Act is fully in force.
	Subsection (4) amends regulation 17 (exemptions from waste management licensing) of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 to require that the fee required under new regulation 20B (which is being inserted by subsection (6) of this section) for an application for an exemption from waste management licensing requirements has to be paid in order for an exemption to apply.
	Subsection (5) amends regulation 18 (registration in connection with exempt activities) of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 to ensure that any notice provided by an establishment or undertaking in respect of the registration of an exemption is to be accompanied by payment of the appropriate fee as may be required under regulation 20B. Subsection (5) further amends regulation 18, adding to the list of exemptions which apply for only one year in paragraph (9), omitting paragraph (12) which lists the current charges payable for exempt activities, and updating the reference in paragraph (11)(b) so that it refers to new regulation 20B (which is being inserted by subsection (6) of this section) instead of paragraph (12).
	Subsection (6) creates new regulation 20B in the Waste Management Licensing Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003, which provides the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs with power to make a charging scheme in respect of fees and charges for registration in connection with exempt activities. New regulation 20B requires that fees and charges, which may be provided for by the scheme, for applications for registering and renewing an exemption and in respect of the subsistence of registrations, are paid to the Department. New regulation 20B further allows for the scheme to provide for different fees depending on the nature of the activities, to set out the times and manners in which payments of fees and charges are to be made, and to provide for reductions in fees where an applicant is applying for multiple exemptions and specified conditions are met. The charging scheme may also specify charges in respect of the subsistence of registrations.