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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on reducing littering in and around drive-through services in the UK.

Defra does not think it would be appropriate to require take-away food vendors to implement a vehicle registration number printing and tracing system for packaging, due to the additional burden this would place on these businesses and those who would be responsible for enforcement. Data protection issues have also been raised.

The Litter Strategy sets out how we intend to work with the relevant industries to tackle certain types of problematic litter, including fast-food packaging.

To this effect, I held a roundtable in September 2020 with large fast-food retailers, many of whom are associated with 'drive-through' type restaurants, to understand what action they are taking now to tackle the litter created by their products. It was encouraging to hear about the initiatives they are working on and, more importantly, that they are committed to delivering lasting change by working together to tackle what is an industry wide issue. We are watching closely to see how their commitments translate into action.

The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on litter. Defra has had no discussions with the Department Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on reducing littering in and around drive-through services in the UK.

Our recently published EPR packaging consultation proposes that producers who make or handle consumer-facing packaging should fund the full net-costs associated with the collection, sorting and treatment of the packaging they place on the market, once it becomes waste. We are also proposing that these fees could cover the costs of consumer information campaigns on recycling packaging waste and litter-related costs. We will continue to engage with producers as these measures come forward.

The Environment Bill will provide the powers necessary to introduce such an extended producer responsibility scheme via secondary legislation.