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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Extended Producer Responsibility fees being (a) illustrative and (b) not intended for business planning purposes on the ability of business to plan for these costs.

The four UK administrations have published three sets of illustrative base fees to help businesses prepare for the implementation of extended producer responsibility scheme for packaging. Thanks to regular engagement and input with a wide range of businesses for the first time we published the third set of illustrative fees showed point estimates as opposed to ranges, providing further certainty.

Large producers are required to submit the next round of 2024 data by 1 April 2025 to ensure the fees are based on accurate data, following this and pending satisfactory regulatory checks, we intend to use these data to publish pEPR base fees by June 2025.

PackUK will continue to monitor the expected base fees as more packaging data is submitted for 2024, and will release a new set of illustrative base fees before June if there are significant changes.