Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential (a) financial and (b) environmental merits of an incineration tax for household waste.

A number of respondents to last year’s call for evidence on single use plastic waste suggested that an incineration tax could discourage incineration and promote more environmentally beneficial forms of waste management.

At Budget 2018, the Chancellor announced that he would not at this point be taking forward a tax on the incineration of waste. However, should wider policies not deliver the government’s waste ambitions, government will consider the introduction of such a tax, in conjunction with landfill tax, taking account of the possible impacts on local authorities.