Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of progress on rolling out the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 in (a) North Northamptonshire and (b) England.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We are rolling out the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 in a controlled way, making sure we offer everyone the right level of support.
We invited Basic Payment Scheme eligible farmers to register interest for SFI2023 with the Rural Payments Agency from 30 August 2023. Over 14,000 farmers have done so, representing one in six. This process is already being simplified, with the majority of farmers no longer needing to registrations of interest as of this week.
We started to accept applications from 18 September. I am pleased to confirm the first payments were made yesterday.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
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 17 May 2023 to Question 184463 on Glass: Deposit Return Schemes, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of excluding glass from the proposed Deposit Return Scheme in England and Northern Ireland on the (a) plastic and (b) aluminium packaging industry.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Businesses have been clear that adding glass to a deposit return scheme will add fundamental complexity for our pubs and restaurants, increase burdens on small businesses, whilst creating greater inconvenience for consumers. We recognise that some sectors are concerned about potential for material switching. However, there are many market forces acting in this space - predicting impacts is very hard. Importantly glass will be included in Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging where obligated producers will be responsible for the disposal costs of their packaging so there will be some balancing of incentives.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to increase glass recycling rates following the exclusion of glass in the proposed Deposit Return Scheme in England and Northern Ireland.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In England and Northern Ireland glass drinks bottles will remain in scope of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging scheme as will all other types of glass packaging placed on the market in all nations. EPR will place recycling targets on producers in relation to glass packaging and require relevant obligated producers to cover the costs of collecting and managing glass packaging arising in household waste and discarded in street bins managed by local authorities.
In our 2022 response to the 2021 EPR consultation the Government set out recycling targets for 2025 and 2030, including glass. These included glass drinks containers in England and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
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 7 June 2023 to Question 187143 on Deposit Return Schemes: Glass, whether her Department plans to give (a) glass and (b) PET bottles the same recycling target under the Extended Producer Responsibility as the 90 per cent target given to other materials under the proposed Deposit Return Scheme in England and Northern Ireland.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
We are working on the recycling targets for each packaging material as part of work to finalise our plans for Extended Producer Responsibility. The individual recycling targets for each material will be set to achieve our environmental ambitions taking into account the specific issues and challenges associated with each material.