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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles to increase recycling rates.

As part of the Litter Strategy for England that was published in April this year, we have established a working group to look at different voluntary and economic incentives to improve the recycling and reuse of packaging, and to reduce the incidence of commonly littered items. As well as voluntary models, the scope of the working group includes consideration of regulatory options and measures to target particular types of item or product, including the full cost impacts and benefits of different types of deposit and reward and return schemes for drink containers including plastic bottles. This working group will be consulting widely in developing its evidence base and analysis.