Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to reform the Packaging Recovery Note scheme to (a) levy costs on packaging producers and (b) reward recycling.

We committed in our 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy to reform the UK's current packaging producer responsibility system and to introduce measures to incentivise packaging producers to make better, more sustainable design decisions and require them to fund the full net costs of managing packaging once it becomes waste, including collection, recycling and disposal costs.

In reforming the current system, the Government's aim is to reduce the amount of unnecessary and difficult to recycle packaging and increase the amount and quality of packaging that can be and is recycled. Measures being considered to drive and reward increased recycling through the reformed system include setting recycling targets on producers, and setting producer 'disposal' cost fees based on the design and recyclability of packaging. We are taking new powers in the Environment Bill to enable us to introduce these reforms and to place more responsibility on producers for products at end of life.

We plan to undertake a second consultation on these reforms in 2021.