Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how will PRN data be accuracy maintained, in the context of lengths of shipping times for exported material.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Recent regulatory changes seek to ensure that exporters provide and maintain accurate, verifiable data to help combat fraud within the system. This includes ensuring that packaging waste that leaves the UK for recycling reaches its intended destination before PERNs can be issued, helping to drive down fraud in the system.
Changes in the regulations mean that PRN evidence can now only be issued once the material has been confirmed as received by the overseas recycling facility. Before this change evidence could be issued at the point of export. This will increase the accuracy of the data.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of requiring exporters to claim PRNs only once material has reached its final destination on those exporters.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Recent regulatory changes seek to ensure that exporters provide and maintain accurate, verifiable data to help combat fraud within the system. This includes ensuring that packaging waste that leaves the UK for recycling reaches its intended destination before PERNs can be issued, helping to drive down fraud in the system.
Changes in the regulations mean that PRN evidence can now only be issued once the material has been confirmed as received by the overseas recycling facility. Before this change evidence could be issued at the point of export. This will increase the accuracy of the data.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether steps have been put in place to allow retrospective PRN/PERN registrations for the period during which the market has been closed.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The PRN/PERN market remains operational. Contracts, sales and payments for PRNs & PERNs remain outside the digital system and operators are able to enter into agreements to contract sales before the PRN/PERN digital functionality is in place.
Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 a new requirement was introduced mandating all packaging waste recyclers to be registered from 2026.
The Environment Agency and Defra created an interim application system which opened on 1 September 2025 enabling operators to submit Registration and Accreditation applications. Accredited operators can engage with producers & compliance schemes directly to agree contractual terms for the supply of PRN/PERNs.
We are making good progress on the delivery of capability for accredited operators to be able to record and issue PRN/PERNs in the digital service.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency arrangements have been put in place to allow PRN/PERN registration while the new system is unavailable.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The PRN/PERN market remains operational. Contracts, sales and payments for PRNs & PERNs remain outside the digital system and operators are able to enter into agreements to contract sales before the PRN/PERN digital functionality is in place.
Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 a new requirement was introduced mandating all packaging waste recyclers to be registered from 2026.
The Environment Agency and Defra created an interim application system which opened on 1 September 2025 enabling operators to submit Registration and Accreditation applications. Accredited operators can engage with producers & compliance schemes directly to agree contractual terms for the supply of PRN/PERNs.
We are making good progress on the delivery of capability for accredited operators to be able to record and issue PRN/PERNs in the digital service.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the PRN system disruption on small and medium-sized reprocessors.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working closely with key trade associations and industry stakeholders to understand the potential impact of delays to the availability of the new PRN digital system, particularly on smaller reprocessors and exporters, and in the plastics and glass recycling sectors. Based on consultation with stakeholders, we have prioritised providing the data that would help them most and support them to continue trading more confidently. The Government committed to keeping affected businesses updated and have issued weekly updates in addition to our helpdesk service. As part of our outreach to businesses, we are encouraging businesses them to share any key feedback and insights on the impact of the delays with us.
The Government will continue to meet with sector bodies and compliance schemes on a weekly basis during February to monitor impacts on businesses and PRN prices.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of PRN market disruption on the plastics and glass recycling sectors.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working closely with key trade associations and industry stakeholders to understand the potential impact of delays to the availability of the new PRN digital system, particularly on smaller reprocessors and exporters, and in the plastics and glass recycling sectors. Based on consultation with stakeholders, we have prioritised providing the data that would help them most and support them to continue trading more confidently. The Government committed to keeping affected businesses updated and have issued weekly updates in addition to our helpdesk service. As part of our outreach to businesses, we are encouraging businesses them to share any key feedback and insights on the impact of the delays with us.
The Government will continue to meet with sector bodies and compliance schemes on a weekly basis during February to monitor impacts on businesses and PRN prices.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the shortened PRN trading year in 2026 on levels of price volatility in that sector.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working closely with key trade associations and industry stakeholders to understand the potential impact of delays to the availability of the new PRN digital system, particularly on smaller reprocessors and exporters, and in the plastics and glass recycling sectors. Based on consultation with stakeholders, we have prioritised providing the data that would help them most and support them to continue trading more confidently. The Government committed to keeping affected businesses updated and have issued weekly updates in addition to our helpdesk service. As part of our outreach to businesses, we are encouraging businesses them to share any key feedback and insights on the impact of the delays with us.
The Government will continue to meet with sector bodies and compliance schemes on a weekly basis during February to monitor impacts on businesses and PRN prices.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has assessed the potential impact of recent levels of availability of the PRN system on levels of reprocessor closures.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working closely with key trade associations and industry stakeholders to understand the potential impact of delays to the availability of the new PRN digital system, particularly on smaller reprocessors and exporters, and in the plastics and glass recycling sectors. Based on consultation with stakeholders, we have prioritised providing the data that would help them most and support them to continue trading more confidently. The Government committed to keeping affected businesses updated and have issued weekly updates in addition to our helpdesk service. As part of our outreach to businesses, we are encouraging businesses them to share any key feedback and insights on the impact of the delays with us.
The Government will continue to meet with sector bodies and compliance schemes on a weekly basis during February to monitor impacts on businesses and PRN prices.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she will take to ensure that future regulatory changes to the PRN system support market operation.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will be consulting on further changes to the PRN system shortly, as announced by the Chancellor in the 2025 Budget, and will continue to work closely with affected business to ensure that the measures taken forward support the effective operation of the PRN market.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she considered putting measures in place to ensure a new digital PRN system was in place prior to the closure of the previous system.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Risks to delivery of the new PRN/PERN system were assessed and a broad range of delivery options were considered. The previous system (the National Waste Packaging Database) does not have the capability to support delivery of new regulatory requirements which take effect for 2026. It is not feasible to run two systems in parallel during the year, given that the PRN market operates on a calendar year basis. Defra is working hard to resolve issues as quickly as possible to minimise disruption to businesses.