Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to roll out the not for sale in EU labelling scheme in October 2024.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to implementing its obligations under the Windsor Framework in good faith, including commitments on the use of 'Not for EU labels', as well as taking all steps necessary to protect the UK internal market. As per guidance published on GOV.UK, from 1 October 2024 milk and dairy products moving under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme will need to be individually labelled.
The previous Government held a consultation on extending the ‘not for EU’ labelling requirements across Great Britain earlier this year and this, as well as further discussion with business, will inform our future approach.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his Department's policy is on the future of the UK Food Resilience Forum.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges. Defra maintains a collaborative relationship with industry which allows us to effectively respond to disruption. This includes a Food Resilience Industry Forum, which can be stood-up at short notice should the need arise.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2023 to Question 136754 on Packaging: Recycling, what (a) representations and (b) feedback her Department has received from (i) industry representatives and (ii) others on the work of the Business Readiness Forum.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
We continually engage with industry on the EPR packaging requirements and are providing guidance and support to ensure a smooth transition. Feedback from industry has been encouraging and having dedicated forums for industry has been well received.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2023 to Question 136753 on Packaging: Recycling, how the funding model would work for obligated businesses paying into the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The funding model involves every obligated producer being billed for its share of the full net costs incurred by UK local authorities managing household packaging waste. Local authority costs will be determined by the Scheme Administrator using a model that assumes local authority packaging waste management is efficient and effective. Each producer’s share will reflect the weight of packaging associated with the products they supply in the UK. From 2025/26, fees will be adjusted (“modulated”) to reflect the recyclability of packaging materials. The scale of the adjustments will be determined by the Scheme Administrator. In addition to making payments to local authorities for the costs of managing packaging waste, each producer will contribute to the operating costs of the Scheme Administrator.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2023 to Question 136753 on Packaging: Recycling, whether the Impact Assessment needs to be reviewed in response to recent increases in costs for businesses.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In May 2022, in response to increasing inflationary pressure in the economy, we modelled an increase in the full net cost of collecting and managing household packaging waste. Specifically, we looked at the impact of an increase in fuel costs, staff costs due to an increase in wages, and in the cost of trucks used for collections. Fairly sizeable increases in these costs were modelled and the result was that the overall increase in full net costs was not substantial.
An updated impact assessment will be published later this year alongside the draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2023.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2023 to Question 136754 on Packaging: Recycling, what the policy objective is of her Department’s eight-week visioning sprint programme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The policy objectives of the Sprints are to build a shared vision on the landscape around packaging reforms in 10 years' time. This includes a shared strategic roadmap detailing a UK Government and industry agreed view of how the benefits will be realised over time. The overall objective is to build a multi-stakeholder view and recommendation to policy on how to incorporate EPR policies in a way that best realises the shared benefits and vision. Representatives from the Devolved Assemblies were invited to nominate attendees, ensuring all UK nations guide common future packaging reform policy.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2023 to Question 136755 on Plastics: Landfill, what assessment she has made of the steps that will need to be taken by producers to meet forthcoming extended producer responsibility for packaging requirements to reduce plastic waste going to (a) landfill and (b) incinerators.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Producers will need to start reporting data on the packaging they place on the market from October 2023. We have published guidance and an obligation checker to help packaging producers to prepare for Extended Producer Responsibility on the gov.uk website, including outlining what data producers will need to start collecting and reporting. This guidance will be continually updated with more detailed information.
The payments that producers will be required to pay to local authorities will be determined from April 2024. These payments will cover the costs for improved management of household packaging when it becomes waste, and provide for the collection of additional packaging materials for recycling such as plastic films and flexible packaging. This, together with higher recycling targets for packaging waste, will result in less packaging waste being sent to landfill and incinerators.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2023 to Question 136754 on Packaging: Recycling, what (a) aims and (b) objectives she has for the extended producer responsibility scheme in 2033; and what steps she is taking to achieve those aims and objectives.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The overall aims of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging are to reduce the amount of unnecessary packaging that is produced, and to increase the proportion of this packaging that is recycled or reused. Our analysis estimates that, with the introduction of EPR in 2024 and a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers in 2025, overall recycling rates will increase from 63.2% in 2021 to 76% by 2033. This is an important step towards meeting our 25 Year Environment Plan commitment to eliminate avoidable waste by 2050.
These measures will also help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2.2 million tonnes by 2033 as the creation of new packaging using virgin materials is reduced. This will contribute to climate change mitigation, in line with our commitment to decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy and achieve net zero by 2050.
This will be achieved by making producers pay for the waste management costs associated with the packaging that they place on the market. The EPR fees that producers will pay will also be varied (modulated) based on the type of packaging produced, with less easily recyclable packaging incurring a higher cost. This will place a strong financial incentive on producers to reduce the overall amount of packaging they use, and to design and use packaging that is easily reusable or recyclable.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2023 to Question 136754 on Packaging: Recycling, what steps her Department plans to take in adjusting the regulatory framework to deliver her Department's vision for what the EPR scheme in 10 years’ time.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Defra’s intention is that the regulations to introduce Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging will be introduced at the end of 2023. These regulations will reflect the policy set out in the Government response to the 2021 consultation, which was published in March 2022.
In parallel with drafting these regulations, the department is continuing to work with stakeholders to develop a future vision for our waste reforms programme over the longer term. As part of this work, we have recently embarked on an eight-week series of industry-wide Sprint events bringing together key stakeholders to obtain their input. Outputs from this process will need due consideration and may include subsequent amendments to the regulatory framework.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on the Resources on Waste Strategy ambition to reduce the amount of plastics ending up in landfills.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In October 2020 we legislated to prevent the incineration or landfilling of certain separately collected material, including plastic, paper, metal and glass, unless it has undergone a treatment process first and only if landfill or incineration is the best environmental outcome. This is in addition to existing permit conditions that already prevent acceptance of recyclable material at landfills and waste incinerators.
We also want to make recycling easier. Following support at public consultation, the new s45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 stipulates that all local authorities in England must make arrangements for a core set of materials to be collected for recycling from households, including plastic packaging. In April last year, we brought in the Plastic Packaging Tax. This will stimulate increased levels of recycling and collection of plastic waste. The introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility in 2024 will also encourage businesses to think carefully about how much plastic packaging they use, to design and use plastic packaging that is easily recyclable and encourage use of reusable and refillable packaging. These measures will reduce plastic waste and divert plastic packaging away from landfill and incineration.
We have restricted the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds and introduced a carrier bag charge which has reduced the use of single-use carrier bags in the main supermarkets by over 97%. More recently we announced the supply of single-use plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and beverage containers will also be banned in England from October this year.
We are committed to going further and addressing other sources of plastic pollution, which is why we also ran a call for evidence to help us gather information to help inform future policy on other problematic plastic items and help inform future policy making. Our response can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/single-use-plastic-banning-the-supply-of-commonly-littered-single-use-plastic-items/outcome/summary-of-responses-and-government-response.