Welsh Audit Office 2018 Report Response – Summary Report

Recommendation R2 from the report is “when undertaking its further analysis to understand better the reasons for differences in councils’ reported costs, and the impact on costs where councils have adopted the Collections Blueprint, we recommend that the Welsh Government:

• explores how the cost of collecting dry recyclables may affect the overall cost of providing kerbside waste management services to households; and 
• compares the actual costs with the costs modelled previously as part of the Welsh Government – commissioned review of the Collections Blueprint for councils that now operate the Collections Blueprint.” 

Welsh Government’s response to the recommendation was: 

“The Welsh Government will work with Local Authorities, the WLGA and the WRAP Collaborative Change Programme (CCP) team to look at the costs of dry recyclable collections, food waste collections and other kerbside waste management services to households. 

The Welsh Government will work with the WRAP CCP team to compare the modelling of costs prior to service changes and the actual costs of services after changes are made. This will include a review of the costs of Local Authorities which are now operating services aligned with the Collections Blueprint. The Welsh Government will progress this work over the next two years with a view to publishing an assessment in spring 2021. 

The assessment will include additional Local Authorities which have switched to the Collections Blueprint and will also attempt to take account of the difference between short-term spikes in costs/performance relative to those encountered in more mature services.”

This summary report outlines the response and findings.