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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing mandatory codes of practice for businesses to reduce litter.

The Government is not, at this time, planning to make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing mandatory codes of practice for businesses to reduce litter.

We want to see businesses recognising what they can do to discourage the littering of their products and packaging, and the potential benefits to their brand of being associated with tackling, rather than causing, litter. Local councils do, however, have powers to intervene where needed. These include Community Protection Notices which can be used to require the owner of premises to take certain actions to tackle litter created by their activities. Planning guidance also clarifies the powers available to councils to ensure new hot food takeaways do not increase the impact of litter on local communities.