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 an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the rates for Extended Producer Responsibility fees for more recyclable materials.

The RAM has been used by producers to assess packaging recyclability from January 2025.  The RAM is an important aspect of pEPR as it will determine the modulation sub-category, and therefore the level of fees applicable to that material, with higher fees applied to less sustainable packaging.

Fee modulation will begin from year two of the scheme for payments in the 2026/27 financial year, based on 2025 producer data.

We have made a full impact assessment of implementing packaging extended producer responsibility will have which we published when The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 were laid before parliament.

The Government will continue to monitor modulation to ensure fees reward improved recyclability.