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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Extended producer responsibility scheme on inflation for consumers in the (a) food and (b) retail sectors.

In autumn last year my department published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) scheme on packaging producers as a whole including impact on CPI inflation and impact on consumers weekly expenditure, when the regulations were laid in parliament.

We continue to work with businesses to ensure the scheme is implemented fairly and proportionately, supporting our shared aim of reducing packaging waste while limiting the impact on consumers.