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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to support the reduction of excess packaging when purchasing products online.

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations already place a legal obligation on UK businesses that make or use packaging to ensure that a proportion of the packaging they place on the market is recovered and recycled. This creates an incentive for all companies to minimise their packaging as this will reduce their costs in complying with the Regulations.

However, we have committed to exploring changes to the packaging producer responsibility scheme. This will look at all aspects of the regime, including mechanisms to incentivise better design for packaging and minimise its use.