Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the UK tobacco industry’s contribution to tackling smoking related litter; and whether that contribution meets their stated goal of getting that industry to play a greater role in addressing such litter.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has made no specific assessment of the UK tobacco industry’s contribution to tackling smoking-related litter. The most recent National Litter Survey for England found that 79% of sites surveyed had smoking-related litter present in 2017-18. In the same year, local authorities in England spent £663 million or £28 per household to keep our streets clean, though this does not include spending by other relevant bodies and it is not currently possible to specify how much of this figure is attributable to smoking-related litter.
We would like to see the tobacco industry delivering on the commitment given by the Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association (TMA) to tackle the litter created by its products and their users, but this must be achieved without breaching the UK’s international obligations.
The tobacco industry has not made, or been invited to make, any financial contribution towards delivery of the “Keep It, Bin It” anti-litter campaign. Ministers have met twice with the TMA in the last three years, but the Government has not held discussions with any individual tobacco companies about smoking-related litter.
Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the estimated cost of cleaning up smoking related litter in England during the last year.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has made no specific assessment of the UK tobacco industry’s contribution to tackling smoking-related litter. The most recent National Litter Survey for England found that 79% of sites surveyed had smoking-related litter present in 2017-18. In the same year, local authorities in England spent £663 million or £28 per household to keep our streets clean, though this does not include spending by other relevant bodies and it is not currently possible to specify how much of this figure is attributable to smoking-related litter.
We would like to see the tobacco industry delivering on the commitment given by the Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association (TMA) to tackle the litter created by its products and their users, but this must be achieved without breaching the UK’s international obligations.
The tobacco industry has not made, or been invited to make, any financial contribution towards delivery of the “Keep It, Bin It” anti-litter campaign. Ministers have met twice with the TMA in the last three years, but the Government has not held discussions with any individual tobacco companies about smoking-related litter.
Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with individual UK tobacco companies about smoking related litter in the last three years.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has made no specific assessment of the UK tobacco industry’s contribution to tackling smoking-related litter. The most recent National Litter Survey for England found that 79% of sites surveyed had smoking-related litter present in 2017-18. In the same year, local authorities in England spent £663 million or £28 per household to keep our streets clean, though this does not include spending by other relevant bodies and it is not currently possible to specify how much of this figure is attributable to smoking-related litter.
We would like to see the tobacco industry delivering on the commitment given by the Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association (TMA) to tackle the litter created by its products and their users, but this must be achieved without breaching the UK’s international obligations.
The tobacco industry has not made, or been invited to make, any financial contribution towards delivery of the “Keep It, Bin It” anti-litter campaign. Ministers have met twice with the TMA in the last three years, but the Government has not held discussions with any individual tobacco companies about smoking-related litter.
Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have received any funding from the UK tobacco industry as part of their national litter campaign.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has made no specific assessment of the UK tobacco industry’s contribution to tackling smoking-related litter. The most recent National Litter Survey for England found that 79% of sites surveyed had smoking-related litter present in 2017-18. In the same year, local authorities in England spent £663 million or £28 per household to keep our streets clean, though this does not include spending by other relevant bodies and it is not currently possible to specify how much of this figure is attributable to smoking-related litter.
We would like to see the tobacco industry delivering on the commitment given by the Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association (TMA) to tackle the litter created by its products and their users, but this must be achieved without breaching the UK’s international obligations.
The tobacco industry has not made, or been invited to make, any financial contribution towards delivery of the “Keep It, Bin It” anti-litter campaign. Ministers have met twice with the TMA in the last three years, but the Government has not held discussions with any individual tobacco companies about smoking-related litter.
Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the tobacco industry operating in the UK is covered by the EU Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Packaging Waste and its subsequent revisions; and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of that Directive on addressing smoking-related litter.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Tobacco packaging is covered by the current producer responsibility regulations, which require companies to recycle a proportion of the packaging waste they place on the market. They will also be subject to the forthcoming extended producer responsibility scheme for packaging which will cover the full net costs of managing packaging at its end of life, including litter, expected to be introduced in 2023.
In the Resources and Waste Strategy, we committed to looking into and consulting on extended producer responsibility for five new waste-streams by 2025, and consulting on two of these by 2022. We have currently identified our five priority waste-streams as: textiles, fishing gear, certain products in construction and demolition, bulky waste, and vehicle tyres. This list is not fixed and does not exclude the potential to review and consult on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for other waste streams if these are identified as being of equal or higher priority.
The EU’s Single-Use Plastics Directive includes measures to implement an EPR scheme for tobacco products with filters, and filters marketed for use in combination with tobacco products, which should cover the costs of awareness raising, data gathering and litter clean-up of these products.
It is the Government’s ambition to use the opportunity of leaving the EU to refresh and renew our environmental policy. An assessment of the legislative work required to transpose the Single-Use Plastics Directive is currently being undertaken.
Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the inclusion of the UK tobacco industry in any extended producer-responsibility regime to address smoking related litter.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Tobacco packaging is covered by the current producer responsibility regulations, which require companies to recycle a proportion of the packaging waste they place on the market. They will also be subject to the forthcoming extended producer responsibility scheme for packaging which will cover the full net costs of managing packaging at its end of life, including litter, expected to be introduced in 2023.
In the Resources and Waste Strategy, we committed to looking into and consulting on extended producer responsibility for five new waste-streams by 2025, and consulting on two of these by 2022. We have currently identified our five priority waste-streams as: textiles, fishing gear, certain products in construction and demolition, bulky waste, and vehicle tyres. This list is not fixed and does not exclude the potential to review and consult on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for other waste streams if these are identified as being of equal or higher priority.
The EU’s Single-Use Plastics Directive includes measures to implement an EPR scheme for tobacco products with filters, and filters marketed for use in combination with tobacco products, which should cover the costs of awareness raising, data gathering and litter clean-up of these products.
It is the Government’s ambition to use the opportunity of leaving the EU to refresh and renew our environmental policy. An assessment of the legislative work required to transpose the Single-Use Plastics Directive is currently being undertaken.
Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution of the tobacco industry to tackling litter from smoking.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial contribution, if any, the tobacco industry has made to delivering the Litter Strategy for England.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what involvement the tobacco industry has had in the Litter Strategy for England.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hanningfield (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what grants were made by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to animal welfare groups in each of the last five years; to which groups they were made; and how much was provided in each grant.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
As part of a government wide digital transparency self-service agenda, government grant data from the previous three years is available online through the Government Grants Information System (GGIS). Data for Defra is combined with data for Defra’s arms-length bodies. As we have no firm definition of what an animal welfare group is these grants would not be easily identifiable on the GGIS.