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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of requiring weekly food waste collections on rural councils.

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. The formula took into account rurality and underwent an extensive assurance process with local authority networks. We are still calculating resource funding allocations.