Regulation (EU) No 528/2012 concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products, as amended

The sale and use of the biocidal product family* ‘INSECTICIDES FOR HOME USE’ is authorised in the EU from the 16th June 2020 until 31st May 2030.  They are authorised for use use to kill or repel species of insect.  There is no change to duties.

*Biocidal family means a group of products which have similar uses, the same active substances, similar composition, and similar levels of risk.

The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure)(Wales) Order 2021 (SI2012/801), as amended

The Planning Applications (Temporary Modifications and Disapplication) (Wales) (Coronavirus) Order 2020 (SI 2020/514 (W. 121))

This Order modifies certain requirements of the 2012 Order in relation to the consultation procedure that must be carried out before making an application for planning permission for major developments during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) emergency period*. During the emergency period, community councils have an extended deadline of 21 days to respond when they are notified of a planning application.

*The emergency period for the purpose of this Order is the time period starting on 19th May 2020 and ending 18th September 2020.

A requirement to make proposed planning application documents available on a website maintained by the applicant and in hard copy is inserted. Hard copies can be requested once the document has been made available for 14 days or more. If a hard copy is requested, it must be made available within 28 days by the proposed developer.

Pre-application consultation* reports now require a statement regarding the information about how proposed applications are to be made available on a website and hard copies must be provided upon request. A statement must also be included to confirm whether hard copies have been requested.

*A pre-application consultation is a specific community consultation that must be undertaken in advance of any planning application being submitted. The aim is to improve the planning system by involving communities at an early stage of the development.

Schedule 1D provides a template for the pre-application notice form to be used during the Covid-19 emergency period. The purpose of the notice is to provide the community with an opportunity to give their comments to the developer on a proposed development prior to the submission of the planning application.

Commission Regulation (EU) 142/2011 laying down health rules as regards animal by-products and derived products not intended for human consumption, as amended

Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/735 amending Regulation (EU) No 142/2011 as regards the use of meat-and-bone meal as a fuel in combustion plants
This Regulation updates the requirements and rules around the use of manure of farmed animals as a fuel for combustion, by adding meat-and-bone meal (MBM) as a fuel to the requirements.

Any form of fuel to be used in a combustion plant has set measures and conditions which must be met for the safe and legal combustion of the fuel. Most solid fuels used in medium combustion plants with a total rated thermal input not exceeding 50 MW follow the requirements set out in Directive (EU) 2015/2193 on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from medium combustion plants. For animal by-products and animal derived products* not intended for human consumption, requirements lay under Regulation (EU) 142/2011 laying down health rules as regards animal by-products and derived products not intended for human consumption

However, measures and conditions for the use of animal by-products or animal-derived products as a fuel (other than on-farm poultry manure), such as MBM, are not established. To ensure the correct Regulations are followed when MBM is used as a fuel in combustion plants, Article 6 paragraph 8 of Regulation (EU) 142/2011, which outlines the requirements such fuels must meet to be used as a combustion fuel, are amended to include MBM as a fuel for combustion.

Section D (Combustion plants in which meat-and-bone meal is used as a fuel for combustion) is inserted, stipulating the storage, handling and temperature requirements to be met by a combustion plant burning MBM.

This Regulation also ensures that the possible adverse environmental or human health impacts resulting from incineration of the MBM, are not greater than those resulting from the combustion of waste.

*Derived products are products obtained from the treatment, transformation or processing of animal by-products.

Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants, as amended

The Persistent Organic Pollutants (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/1340)

These Amendment Regulations come into force on the day the UK leaves the European Union (EU). They do not change any duties for organisations.
Changes are made to ensure Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants, which has been retained as part of UK legislation, can continue to function following the UK’s exit from the EU. The changes made to achieve this include:

  • removing references to the EU, EU Directives, etc. or changing them to UK equivalents;
  • inserting new definitions for “appropriate authority” and “competent authority”;
  • transferring functions currently carried out by the EU and the EU Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to UK authorities; and
  • inserting a power for regulations to be made to create offences for noncompliance with this Regulation.

Note that legislation expressed as coming into force on ‘exit day’ (31st January 2020), has been postponed until the end of the ‘implementation period’ (i.e. the transition period which follows Brexit). This postponement is made by Schedule 5 of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 [2020 Chapter 1]. Therefore, any provisions expressed above as coming into force on ‘exit day’ will not now come into force until the end of the ‘implementation period’.