Site Waste Management Plans Regulations 2008

The regulations were laid before the UK Parliament on 15 February 2008, and came into full force on 6 April 2008. The regulations did not apply to any project planned before 6 April that year, if construction work commenced before 1 July 2008, and applied only to projects in England. They did not apply to non-construction parts of a site such as welfare facilities (Regulation 2).

The Site Waste Management Plans Regulations were repealed by Government on 1 December 2013 following a consultation exercise, as part of the Government's initiative to reduce red tape.

They applied to all projects with a value of £300,000 or more, excluding VAT, with additional updating requirements for projects with a value of £500,000 or more.

The regulations placed the initial responsibility for the production of the plan with the client. The client had to produce the plan before the project was started. If a project was started without a site waste management plan, then both the client and the principal contractor were guilty of an offence under these regulations. The regulations also laid out what the plan had to include.

The plan must identify:

• The client
• The principal contractor
• The person who drafted it
• The location of the site
• The estimated cost of the project

It must record any decision made in order to minimise the quantity of waste produced on site before the plan was drafted.

It must:

• Describe each waste expected to be produced
• Estimate the quantity of each type of waste
• Identify the waste management action for each type of waste including re-using, recycling, recovery of disposal.

It must also contain a declaration that both the client and the principal contractor will comply with the requirements of duty of care and that materials will be handled efficiently and waste managed appropriately.

Once the project started, the regulations placed an obligation on the principal contractor to update the plan. If the project had a value over £500,000 they must record details of the identity of the person removing the wastes, the types of waste removed and the site the waste was being taken to. They must also, within three months of the completion of the project, add a confirmation that wastes had been monitored and the plan updated to reflect any changes along with an explanation of any deviation from the plan.

If the project was worth more than £500,000, then these requirements include further, more clearly defined, duty of care information. The principal contractor must also:

• Review the plan
• Record quantities and types of waste produced
• Record the types and quantities of waste that have been:
  • Reused (on or off site)
  • Recycled (on or off site)
  • Sent of other forms of recovery (on or off site)
  • Sent to landfill
  • Otherwise disposed of
• Update the plan to reflect the progress of the project

Within three months of the work being completed the principal contractor must add to the plan:

• Confirmation that the plan has been monitored and updated in accordance with the regulation
• A comparison of estimated quantities of each type of waste generated against the actual quantities of each waste type
• An explanation of any deviation from the plan
• An estimate of the cost savings that have been achieved by completing and implementing the plan.

The principal contractor must ensure that the plan was kept on site, and every contractor knew where it was kept. It must be available to any contractor carrying any work described in the plan.

The principal contractor must retain the plan for two years following the completion of the project.

In addition to the requirements laid out in the regulations the client and principal contractor must, so far as is reasonably practicable, comply with a number of additional duties laid out in the schedule to the regulations.

These include:

• Ensuring cooperation between contractors during the construction phase.
• Induction, information and training for every worker, with respect to the site waste management plan.
• Ensuring that waste produced was reused, recycled or recovered

There were also a number of other requirements relating to joint responsibilities for both the client and principal contractor. Failure to comply with this schedule was also an offence.

The Environment Agency and local government or council enforcement officers were to enforce these regulations.

A person found guilty of an offence was liable, on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £50,000 or on indictment to an unlimited fine. Where a corporate body was guilty of an offence, individual liability also applied to directors, managers and other persons acting in a similar capacity.

The enforcement body could also issue a £300 fixed penalty notice if any person failed to produce a site waste management plan or any other record when required to do so by an enforcement officer.

Source: Brian, M (2008) The Site Waste Management Plans Regulations 2008, Regulatory Update, Compliance, (online) www.wastefile.com/news.Site Waste Management Plan Regulations 2008 (accessed 04/02/2008)