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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has assessed the potential impact of Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging charges on social enterprises; and whether she has considered extending exemptions from those charges to social enterprises.

Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) shifts the cost of managing household packaging waste from taxpayers to the producers who place packaging on the market. It funds local authorities and incentivises producers to reduce packaging and use packaging that is easier to recycle.

Producer obligations are determined by turnover and packaging tonnage, rather than business model. Producers are exempt from disposal fee and recycling obligations where they have annual turnover below £2 million and place less than 50 tonnes of packaging on the market.

Defra keeps the thresholds and wider impacts of the scheme under review as it is implemented.