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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the sixteenth report of session 2017-19 of the Environmental Audit Committee entitled Fixing fashion: clothing consumption and sustainability, HC 1952, published on 19 February 2019, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of accepting the recommendation to impose a charge on clothing garments to fund clothing collection and sorting services.

No recent assessment has been made of the Environmental Audit Committee’s recommendation for a charge on garments to fund collection and sorting services. However, the Secretary of State has asked his department to convene a taskforce of experts from across the Government, industry, academia and relevant NGOs. The Taskforce will help to develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England and a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions that the Government will make on a sector-by-sector basis. The Taskforce will consider the evidence for action right across the economy, and as such the Taskforce will evaluate what interventions may need to be made in the textiles sector as it helps to develop the Circular Economy Strategy.