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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of councils have (a) applied for and (b) received exemptions from food waste processing under the Simpler Recycling’s mandatory food waste collection requirements, due to commence between 2025-2027.

We have set out that every local authority will be required to collect food waste for recycling by 31 March 2026. Commencement regulations named a total of 31 local authorities that were provided with a bespoke transitional arrangement, delaying food waste collection requirements. It was deemed that these local authorities needed longer to implement separate food waste collections for households due to barriers presented by long-term residual waste disposal contracts that run beyond 31 March 2026.

We engaged extensively with affected local authorities. Where the evidence demonstrated that existing long-term waste disposal contracts presented an unavoidable barrier to the introduction of food waste collections by 31 March 2026, transitional arrangements were provided by Defra.

We will continue to work with local authorities to identify whether they can bring forward food waste collections and the associated benefits before the end of their bespoke transitional arrangement.