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 plans to take to extend measures contained in Directive 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment.

Having left the EU, we now have the freedom to tackle single-use plastic items in ways that work best for us, including considering alternative approaches to the EU’s Single-Use Plastic Directive to deliver a better overall outcome. Where policy areas are devolved, the devolved administrations are taking their own approach.

This year in England we are increasing our highly successful single-use carrier bag charge to 10p and extending it to all retailers, and in April 2022 a new plastic packaging tax will come into force to incentivise businesses to use 30% recycled plastic instead of new material in plastic packaging. We are also taking powers in the Environment Bill to create extended producer responsibility schemes; introduce deposit return schemes; establish greater consistency in the recycling system; better control the export of plastic waste; and give us the power to set new charges for other single-use plastic items.