Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing tax incentives to encourage the (a) sorting and (b) biological treatment of waste before landfill for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government is committed to reducing waste going to landfill. The Resources and Waste Strategy 2018 set out commitments to eliminate all avoidable waste to landfill by 2050 and to reduce the amount of municipal waste landfilled to 10% of total municipal waste by 2035.
Landfill Tax provides an incentive for waste to be diverted away from landfill and has contributed to a reduction in local authority waste sent to landfill in England of 90% since 2000.
The government is also introducing a world leading tax on plastic packaging from April 2022. The tax will encourage the use of recycled plastic instead of new plastic within packaging. It will create greater demand for recycled plastic, and in turn stimulate increased levels of recycling and collection of plastic waste, diverting it away from landfill or incineration.
While the government has no immediate plans to introduce further tax incentives for waste management, the government will review aspects of the Landfill Tax in England and Northern Ireland in due course, as announced in spring 2021. This will ensure the tax continues to support the government’s ambitious environmental objectives.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent impact assessment his Department has made of the potential cost of upcoming Government regulations on (a) businesses and (b) food prices.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to well-designed and effective regulation that achieves the right balance between supporting excellent business practice and protecting workers, consumers and the environment.
Impact assessments help to inform regulatory design that achieves those outcomes. Therefore, Government Departments, including the Treasury, produce and publish impact assessments for all new regulations in accordance with the rules of the Better Regulation Framework. Individual impact assessments for new regulations will assess evidence of impacts on businesses, food prices and other areas as is appropriate to the regulation in question.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with Ministerial colleagues on incentivising (a) an improvement in the performance of incineration through taxation and (b) the improvement of waste management generally.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the Resources and Waste Strategy 2018, the government set out that incineration currently plays a significant role in waste management in the UK, and that the government expects this to continue. However, in the long term the government wants to maximise the amount of waste sent to recycling instead of incineration and landfill. As set out at Budget 2018, should wider policies not deliver the government’s waste ambitions in the future, it will consider the introduction of a tax on the incineration of waste, operating in conjunction with landfill tax, taking account of the possible impacts on local authorities. All tax policy is kept under review. The government also maintains and develops tax policies to support effective waste management, including the existing Landfill Tax and the world leading Plastic Packaging Tax which will be introduced from April 2022.
The government is committed to the improving of waste management and set out the Waste Management Plan for England 2021 earlier this year. Further detail available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/waste-management-plan-for-england-2021
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to introduce taxes on air pollutants produced by industry.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK has been at the forefront of reducing industrial pollution. In January 2021, the UK launched its own Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to replace membership of the EU ETS. The UK ETS already puts a price on carbon emissions from energy intensive industries, as well as from power generation and some aviation, including domestic, UK-EEA, and UK-Gibraltar flights.
The UK also has a strong and proportionate regulatory framework in place to require industry to reduce emissions and industry has responded with investment and innovation to meet these standards. Regulations such as the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 play an important role in ensuring regulators and industry work together effectively to reduce pollution through a robust licensing and permitting regime. The Government recently consulted on creating a best available techniques process for the UK in which industry and regulators will reduce emissions by setting new standards for complex industrial processes.