Firm set to takeover NHS clinical waste disposal contract

About 150 workers in Scotland lost their jobs when HES collapsed, the majority of whom worked at the firm's headquarters in Shotts

A new firm will be responsible for disposing of NHS clinical waste from the spring, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has confirmed.

She told MSPs Tradebe Healthcare Ltd would take over from NHS National Services Scotland.

NSS has been in charge of the disposal of clinical waste since the collapse of Healthcare Environmental Services in December 2018.

Hundreds of workers at the clinical waste firm were made redundant.

It also created a backlog of about 300 tonnes of clinical and human waste at its headquarters in Shotts, North Lanarkshire.

HES liquidator BDO began clearing the backlog in December last year.

Tradebe was announced as the preferred operator in February last year and the contract was due to start two months later in April.

But Ms Freeman told parliament it was then hit by "unavoidable delays" due to the challenges of obtaining planning permission from North Lanarkshire Council for the firm's processing site at Bellshill.

It was eventually agreed in August and testing successfully concluded in November.

In response to a parliamentary question from MSP Fulton McGregor, the minister said waste management services would move to Tradebe on a phased basis by spring 2020.