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 extending the short-term pause in the determination of applications for environmental permits for certain types of waste incineration facilities in England beyond 24 May 2024.

We have put in place a temporary, short-term pause in the determination of certain environmental permits for new waste incineration facilities. During the pause period, Defra officials are leading a scoping exercise to consider the need for a review of the role of further waste incineration facilities giving regard to Defra’s resources and waste objectives and wider government environmental and decarbonisation objectives and obligations. The work being led by Defra officials is ongoing and it would be wrong to pre-judge the outcome of this scoping exercise. Next steps will be announced in due course.