, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with the Welsh Local Government Association and Local Authorities
I wanted to ask—. So, obviously, there's a lot of work that local authorities are already undertaking, and there's a lot of work that's already happening with categorising tips, and you, as local authorities, have an oversight role. Why do you think this Bill…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with the Welsh Local Government Association and Local Authorities
Thanks, Chair. Good morning to you all.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Diolch. It is something that, at present, wouldn't be in the scope of the Bill, and I just wanted to ask whether you think that it should be looked at in the scope of the Bill. There have been concerns raised with us as a committee in the past about how, in…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Forgive me, sorry.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you very much.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you for that. That's incredibly helpful, but just to check that without those provisos, so if that extra resource and support isn't provided, then that tension could become very problematic.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you. That was very kind of you to point that out. Thank you. I wanted to check with Dominic, please. I don't dispute any of the points that any of you have just made, and I know this is a very complicated situation and it's nuanced. Dominic, you had…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Don't worry, we're not picking on you. [Laughter.] Thank you very much, that's fine.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you. That's very helpful. Dominic, in NRW's written evidence, there's a suggestion that you've changed your position—or that NRW has changed its position—on the need for a new safety regime to ensure that disused tips don't threaten the environment by…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you. Rick, if I could check, and this may well be exactly what you were just talking about, I wanted to clarify: the terms 'serious' and 'significant', are they directly in line with your descriptors in your enforcement management model? Is that exactly…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Right. I understand. Okay, thank you.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
If I could just come back, Carl, if that’s all right. Not all of the tips, of course, would have a management plan; it's only the highest risk, the ones that are already recognised as being the highest risk that would be there, although I may be straying into…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you, all, for that. To delve a little further into the detail of it, 'human welfare' is defined here as referring to serious damage, illness and disruption. Now, in terms of that term 'serious', do you think that that is well-enough defined, and will it…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you very much for that. It’s very interesting that you make that point about social justice as well; I’m sure we’ll come back to that. A number of changes have appeared between what was originally proposed in the White Paper that preceded the Bill, and…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you for that.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
I was going to ask you, firstly, to what extent you think that the Bill is needed. Some of you have already touched on this and spoken briefly about the legislative clarity that it might perhaps bring to some of your roles. But in the context of the fact that…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with Coal bodies
Thank you. Good morning to you all.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with the Law Commission
Yes, that's very helpful, thank you. And I think it would be unfair to put you further on the spot, because I appreciate that you were giving that evidence to us as a constitutional expert, rather than about the report specifically. That has been very useful…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with the Law Commission
This is very helpful.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with the Law Commission
Thank you. I utterly take that point and I won't pursue that further with you, because I appreciate that your expertise on this is not mining expertise, but that is very helpful, so thank you. Finally from me, please, a lot of what was originally proposed in…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with the Law Commission
Hi, again. I want to ask you about risk assessments, if you wouldn't mind. I know that you had recommended that all disused tips should be subject to a risk assessment. The Bill, as it's drafted, splits it up and it makes provision for a preliminary…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with the Law Commission
All right. Thank you very much.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with the Law Commission
Okay. That's useful. Cadeirydd, if I may, just briefly—? That's interesting, that—. Would it normally have been the case, when you have done preliminary work like this, that you would have then been asked to be involved in the drafting? I utterly take your…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Stage 1 scrutiny of the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill - Evidence session with the Law Commission
Thank you for that. You've already indicated that the Bill is drafted in a way so that this could be incremental and that it would be phased in, or the non-coal tips would be phased in. In terms of the drafting, do you think that that provision would need to…
