Ruddock, Joan & Cooper, Jeff: transcript of a video interview (07-Jun-2016)

Abstract

Interview with Dame Joan Ruddock and Mr Jeff Cooper, conducted by Ms Lynda Finn, with additional questions by Mr Alan Yabsley, for the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, 07 June 2016, in the School of History, Queen Mary University of London. Transcribed by Mrs Debra Gee, and edited by Mr Alan Yabsley and Professor Tilli Tansey. The project management was undertaken by Mr Adam Wilkinson. Dame Joan Ruddock DBE BSc ARCS (b. 1943) was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham Deptford from 1987 to 2015. In 1989 she brought forward a Private Members’ Bill on fly-tipping that became the Control of Pollution Act 1989 and, in 2003, a Private Members’ Bill that became the Household Waste Recycling Act 2003. In 2007 she became Parliamentary Under Secretary in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and requested the waste brief, serving as Minister for Biodiversity, Climate Change and Waste until she joined the newly created Department for Energy and Climate Change in October 2008. Dame Joan gave her final speech to the House of Commons on 26 March 2015. Mr Jeff Cooper MSc (b. 1949) became Waste Recycling Coordinator at the Greater London Council in 1982. He was subsequently appointed Waste Planner for the London Waste Regulation Authority (LWRA) where he also represented the International Solid Waste Association’s recycling working group as its Vice-Chair. He joined the newly-formed Environment Agency in 1996 on a project for the development of regulations for packaging waste. He was elected Junior Vice President of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management in 2004, and served as President from 2007 to 2008. Since 2009 he has worked as an independent consultant and journalist.