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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the benefits of introducing statutory recycling targets for local authorities.

The Government is committed to reducing waste by transitioning to a circular economy. To support the Government in achieving this goal, a Circular Economy Taskforce of experts has been established from across the Government, industry, academia, and civil society to help us develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England.

The taskforce will consider the evidence for sector-specific interventions from right across the economy and will be exploring a wide range of levers to drive circularity.

Local Authorities are best placed to determine the effective delivery of local services. We want to provide the framework in which they do this and ensure that there is consistency in what is collected.