Packaging News
Wrap has avoided the latest round of government cuts announced this morning as packaging’s government advisory committee also escaped being abolished.
Waste body Wrap was not mentioned in today’s announcements on how it plans to cut costs for arms-length bodies in what had been billed as a “bonfire of the quangos” across government.
Overall, some 200 quangos are to be scrapped across government of some 901 that have been reviewed. Many others are to be merged or told to cut their costs.
However, a spokeswoman for Wrap told Packaging News that it had not been included in today’s announcements because it operates as a not-for-profit company and a delivery body on resource efficiency for Whitehall department Defra, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland government.
Nevertheless, it is expected that the body will come under pressure to reduce its costs, which amounted to £81m in the year to 31 March 2010, as government cutbacks continue.
Meanwhile the Advisory Committee on Packaging, which is led by waste guru Bob Lisney, is to be reclassified from its current status as a non-departmental public body to a ‘committee of experts’.
Lisney today said that the committee’s work would continue despite the change in status and that all its members had been asked to continue their involvement.
“The commitment is still there and the work programme we are undertaking is going very well. Even if you’re trying to cut costs in government it doesn’t mean t say that you don’t need the advice.”
The Environment Agency, however, is to be “substantially reformed” to cut costs. The agency runs the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations.
In today’s statement, environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said: “Defra’s current delivery network contains over 90 arm’s-length bodies and there have been difficult decisions to make in order to achieve the best value for money in this challenging economic climate.
“The announcement today confirms that the number of Defra’s arm’s length bodies will reduce by over half.
“But the changes announced today also reflect the government’s view that it should only carry out those functions which only government can do, while harnessing the power of civil society and the private sector to help deliver Defra’s objectives.”
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