MS, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet
Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Today, the
Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill (‘the Bill') and
Explanatory Memorandum have been laid before the Senedd Cymru.
Wales has a proud mining heritage, and its legacy is visible
across our landscape today. The Bill is about the safety of coal
and non-coal tips in Wales. There are 2,573 disused coal tips in
Wales, and whilst they are predominantly in the South Wales
valleys, this issue impacts both West and North Wales, as well as
there being an estimated 20,000 other disused tips (i.e. not
coal) in Wales.
In February 2020, following storms Ciara and Dennis, a series of
coal tip landslides occurred in Wales, including a major
landslide of a disused tip in Tylorstown. These landslides, as
well as the recent incident at Cwmtillery, illustrate the
potential risks that disused tips present to communities.
It is imperative that we have a structured approach to managing
disused tips to ensure they are safe and not a threat to our
communities.
In October 2020, the Welsh Government invited the Law
Commission to evaluate current legislation relating to disused
coal tips. It reported in 2022: Regulating Coal Tip Safety
in Wales. It considered the current legislative framework in
Part 2 of the Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969, and stated that
that Act no longer provides an effective management framework for
disused coal tips in the twenty-first century. Reform was
recommended.
A key commitment and priority for this Government, as set out in
our Programme for Government
2021, is to introduce legislation to ensure coal tip
safety.
The Bill satisfies that commitment and, in recognition of the Law
Commission's recommendations about the shortcomings of the
existing legislative framework, establishes a new regime
specifically designed to deal with the disused tips that are part
of the post-industrial landscape in Wales.
The primary focus of the Bill is safety – of both coal and
non-coal tips – ensuring [the protection of human welfare] that
communities in Wales feel safe in their homes. The Bill
will achieve this by establishing a new public body, the Disused
Tips Authority for Wales (‘the Authority'), which will have
functions in relation to the assessment, registration, monitoring
and management of disused tips.
In summary, the Bill:
- establishes the Authority as a body corporate. Its main
objective in carrying out its functions under the Bill is to
ensure that disused tips do not threaten human welfare by reason
of their instability,
- makes provision for the assessment, registration and
monitoring of disused tips,
- contains provisions that enable the Authority to deal with
tip instability and threats to tip instability. This includes
powers to require an owner of land to carry out operations and
for the Authority to carry out operations itself, and related
provisions in respect of payments in connection with such
operations,
- contains supplementary provisions including powers of entry,
information sharing provisions and powers to require information,
and
- creates related offences to support the enforcement of the
regime.
I look forward to working with Members and stakeholders on the
Bill's proposals in the coming months.
