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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the level of additional resources required to ensure that local authorities are able to make arrangements for recycling additional materials from 2023.

In 2019, the Government published its consultation ‘Consistency in Household and Business Recycling Collection in England’ and associated impact assessment. These included assessments of the additional costs arising from measures for greater consistency in recycling collections including the collection of a core set of materials of plastic, glass, paper and card, metal, food and garden waste from households.

The Government will be publishing a second consultation in 2021 which will seek views on further details of consistency in recycling. A further impact assessment will be published alongside it and will include updated assessments of costs for these measures.

In line with guidance on new burdens, the Government has committed to covering the costs of any additional burdens that local authorities face as a result of new statutory duties that require them to implement consistency and will apply that guidance in assessing these costs.