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 adequacy of the preparedness of local authorities in England to collect food waste separately to household waste from March 2026.

Under the Simpler Recycling reforms, all local authorities in England must provide weekly food waste collections from households by 31 March 2026, unless a transitional arrangement applies (a later date set in legislation).

We have invested over £340 million to date to support councils as they get ready for weekly food collections. We have also published guidance to help local authorities and funded sector specialists WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) to provide further resources and support. This includes guidance on good practice when delivering services to householders and communications guidance for household food waste collections.

We have consulted and engaged extensively with local authorities throughout the development of this policy. This has included focused working groups, sector events and holding monthly stakeholder forums. We meet monthly with local authority waste network chairs to partner on delivery of these reforms. We are aware of some specific delivery challenges faced by some local authorities to meet these new obligations and are working with local authority waste networks and the wider industry to provide additional support where we can. We will continue to monitor progress and work with the sector to deliver these reforms.