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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of funding to local authorities to implement the simpler recycling reforms that were announced in October 2023.

Financial burdens introduced through new statutory duties on local authorities will be assessed in accordance with the new burdens doctrine and reasonable net costs will be covered by the Government in line with the new burdens doctrine. We have brought forward up to £295 million in capital funding to roll out weekly food waste collections across England. This will cover the cost of additional bins and vehicles. Defra developed the funding formula in collaboration with the Waste and Resources Action Programme and underwent an extensive assurance process with local authority networks. Requests by local authorities to reconsider funding allocations, based on new evidence, are currently being considered. We are still calculating resource funding allocations.

Extended Producer Responsibility payments will be provided to local authorities for the costs of collecting and managing household packaging waste through efficient and effective services. This includes the collection of additional packaging materials for recycling such as plastic films and flexibles. Initial estimates are that local authorities in the UK will collectively receive payments in the region of £1.2 billion per annum for managing household packaging waste. Payments modelling is currently underway to refine this estimate ready for packaging Extended Producer Responsibility implementation.