Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein)
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I promise I will be quick. One of the issues I wanted to bring up in the first round was use of the phrase "from time to time." It seems a vague use of language, and open-ended, for holding a Minister to account or even, in one case, the EPA, which may evaluate its programme from time to time but at least every six years. I am wondering if there is scope to tighten that up.

We are saying we do not want to put too much work on the EPA. They have enough to be doing. This is a huge body of work that they will take on in implementing this but six years also seems like a very long period. Given that we are in this phase where there will be pilot schemes and the initiatives we were talking about, such as the sharing economy, the repair and the co-location of civic amenities, I am wondering should we reduce that period or at least allow that the initial one may be a review after two years and then extend it to every six years. It is more about the loose language in the context of the number of times the phrase "from time to time" is used, and whether that can be tightened up.

Under head 12, where the Minister has the authority to include targets on a statutory basis, will reuse or refill be defined. Will there be a certain number of high temperature washes? Will it be set? Best practice is that we should be setting that in law as 20 times minimum that something should be refilled or reused. Will we be defining that in the legislation?