Thank you. I'm pleased to present the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Act 2017 (Reliefs) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019. I'd like to put on record my thanks to the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee for its work in considering these regulations. These regulations are made under sections 8(5)(b), 33(1)(b) and 94(1) of the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Act 2017. The relate to amendments to the operation of site restoration relief and quarry relief. Regulation 2 will amend the definition of ‘restoration work’ to make it clear that restoration work carried out at a landfill disposal site that has not been capped is capable of being treated as restoration work for the purposes of the Act. A cap is a physical layer of protection that Natural Resources Wales, through its permitting requirements, will require a site to apply in order to contain and separate the waste from restoration work.

Since becoming operational in April 2018, the Welsh Revenue Authority has become aware that there may be landfill sites in Wales, known as inert sites, that Natural Resources Wales may not require to apply an engineered cap at the conclusion of disposal operations. This is because of the low environmental risk that the disposals made there pose. The result of the proposed amendment is that all landfill sites will become potentially eligible to claim site restoration relief, including inert landfill sites. 

Regulation 3 will amend the relief for the refilling of opencast mines or quarries. The proposed amendment slightly broadens the extent of the relief to allow qualifying mixtures of material, other than fines, to be deposited, in addition to purely qualifying material. This recognises that, in many cases, a qualifying material may contain a small and incidental amount of non-qualifying material that is a low environmental risk. It ensures that the WRA is able to operate the relief in a practical and proportionate way, without eroding the clear parameters and underlying principles of this relief. 

Although minor amendments, these regulations are an example of our responsiveness to operational practice. The amended regulations will help ensure that the relief for site restoration and refilling of quarries operate in a way that takes account of the social, economic and environmental context, and I ask Members to support these regulations.