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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that retailers maintain publicly accessible and transparent records of how the proceeds of the 5p plastic bag levy have been used and distributed.

Since the charge was introduced in England retailers have donated proceeds of approximately £95 million towards a variety of good causes covering the arts, education, environment, health, heritage and sports as well as local causes chosen by customers or staff.

The legislation requires large retailers to report what they do with the money from the charge and the department in line with the regulation publishes records supplied by retailers on GOV.UK website by 31 July each year.