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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy that reusable security tags are used rather than RFID tags; and for what reason there was a change made from reusable tags to RFID tags.

Our approach to using resources efficiently and reducing waste overall is set out in the Resources and Waste Strategy (2018). There is no specific policy relating to RFID tags and the decision by businesses on which tags to use would be a commercial one in which they are expected to apply the principles of the Waste Hierarchy. However, we intend to keep using our Environment Act 2021 powers to target throwaway culture and incentivise consumers and businesses to choose reusable alternatives.