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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to introduce the new Deposit Return Scheme in England and Wales; what progress she has made on setting up an administrator for that scheme; and if she will make a statement.

In its 2019 manifesto, HM Government committed to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers to incentivise people to recycle more and to reduce littering of in-scope containers. HM Government has consulted twice on the introduction of a DRS and further details will be set out in HM Government’s response to the 2021 consultation. We are working towards publication of HM Government’s response in late 2022.

The DRS will have a central organisation to manage its operation which will be a new not-for-profit body established for the purpose of running the scheme - the Deposit Management Organisation (DMO). We are currently developing secondary legislation which will set out the obligations imposed on the DMO. Once the secondary legislation is in place, we will progress with selecting the DMO.