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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the (a) the environmental benefits of the plastic bag charge and (b) potential merits of introducing such a charge for disposable coffee cups.

A full impact assessment considering the potential environmental benefits of the plastic bag charge was developed as part of introducing it in October 2015. It is available at: www.legislation.gov.uk/

We recently published the first 6 months’ data reported to us on the charge. Based on this, we expect English consumers to use around six billion less single-use plastic carrier bags this year.

Major coffee chains already have a financial obligation to recover and recycle a proportion of the packaging they place on the market, including disposable coffee cups, as they are captured under the Packaging Waste Regulations. The industry is also taking further voluntary action aimed at significantly increasing paper cup recycling rates by 2020.

The Government is developing the 25 Year Environment Plan, part of which will consider our policies for resources, waste and recycling.