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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fee structure accurately reflects the environmental performance of (a) the brewing sector, (b) the hospitality sector and (c) other sectors which operate closed-loop recycling systems.

The Government has worked closely with industry, including the brewing and hospitality sectors, throughout development of Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR). This is a major reform that will be iterated over several years to incentivise packaging producers to reduce their material footprint and use more sustainable packaging.

We are considering further improvements to the scheme, including how to treat businesses which run closed loop recycling systems for packaging that is commonly collected by Local Authorities, and my officials are reviewing options to bring forward an offset for closed loop recycling systems at the earliest opportunity.