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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding in the report by Eunomia published on 11 October, Impacts of a Deposit Refund System for one-way beverage packaging on local authority waste services, that a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and other drinks containers would be likely to yield overall net savings for English local authorities, once other factors such as the likely impact on residual waste arisings are taken into account; and whether they intend to introduce such a scheme.

We have not made a formal assessment of the findings in the report by Eunomia published on 11 October. The report will help the work of the Voluntary and Economic Incentives Working Group, which was established as part of the Litter Strategy for England, to examine specific voluntary and/or regulatory interventions that can reduce the incidence of commonly littered items and improve recycling and reuse of packaging.

On 2 October, this government launched a call for evidence to inform the Working Group on measures to reduce littering of drinks containers and promote recycling. The call for evidence closes on 30 October and includes questions on the costs, benefits and impacts of deposit and reward and return schemes.

The Working Group is due to provide us with advice on potential incentives for drinks containers early in 2018.