Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 8 April 2025 to Question 43345 on WRAP: Finance, if he will itemise the work programme for which WRAP received the grant in 2025-26.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The itemised work programme for which WRAP has received DEFRA funding (now finalised at £5,949,500) is summarised below:
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Environment Agency staff worked on compliance with requirements for office workplace recycling in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The corporate estate of the Environment Agency (EA), including offices and depots, is centrally managed by Defra. Many of the EA’s workplaces are shared spaces across the Defra group as a result. Defra group Facilities Management are specifically responsible for all workplace services across the group, which includes workplace recycling.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 8 April 2025 to Question 43334 on WRAP: Publications, what the (a) title and (b) date of publication is of each publication produced by the Waste and Resources Action Programme through funding from his Department.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A list of Defra funded WRAP publications for the last 3 years, including the title and date of publication is attached.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the agreement between the EU and UK to create a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement of 19 May 2025, whether agri‑food tech exports would be required to meet (a) UK and (b) EU rules.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The EU have accepted there will need to be a number of areas where we need to retain our own rules. The details of these are subject to negotiation, but we have been clear about the importance of being able to set high animal welfare standards, support public health, and support the use of new and innovative technologies.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to take steps to ensure that UK Deposit Management Organisation Ltd includes representation from (a) small businesses and (b) the wider beverage industry.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Small businesses, including small producers and retailers, are key to the success of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers. During the development of DRS policy and legislation, the Government worked closely with small businesses and their trade associations through dedicated sub-groups.
The appointment of UK Deposit Management Organisation Limited (UK DMO) has been made by government, effective from 2nd May 2025 as the operator of the DRS for single-use plastic and metal drinks containers across England and Northern Ireland.
UK DMO are continuing the engagement with small business and wider beverage industry representatives via their Advisory Group and their views must be taken into account as delivery of the DRS progresses.
UK DMO itself is an organisation that represents a significant portion of the UK drinks and retail sectors. The DMO application process has ensured that there is a wide representation of industry needs on the DMO Board. UK DMO also has an Advisory Group, which will include small businesses representation.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to include glass in the deposit return scheme from 2027.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in England will include single-use drinks containers from 150ml to 3 litres. Materials included are polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, steel, and aluminium drink containers
In England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, glass is not in scope of DRS. Instead, glass will be included in the scope of the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging scheme, to make sure it is appropriately and efficiently recycled.
The government’s position is that glass in DRS would add considerable upfront cost and create complex challenges to delivery, particularly for the hospitality and retail sectors. It will also disproportionately impact small breweries and be inconvenient for consumers due to its weight and potential for breakage in transit to a return point.
The decision to exclude glass drinks containers from DRS was taken following extensive reviewing of evidence and engagement with industry stakeholders. This includes glass producers, who, at the time, were strongly in favour of glass exclusion from DRS and inclusion in pEPR.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to review the inclusion of (a) plastic containers and (b) metal cans in the extended producer responsibility scheme following the rollout of the deposit return scheme in 2027.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is not currently considering changes to the scope of pEPR or Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).
The DRS regulation sets out the requirement for the Government to conduct a post implementation review of the DRS to consider its effectiveness, costs, and benefits. This will be conducted once the scheme has been operational for enough time to allow sufficient data to be available.
When considering whether the scope of the scheme needs to be updated, the department would be open to considering the views of those managing the DRS and those who represent materials which could be considered as part of the scope of a DRS in the future. Any changes being considered would be subject to the standard practices of consultation and analysis / impact assessment development.
Such reviews would also need to consider associated policies, such as extended producer responsibility for packaging, which captures all non-DRS packaging. Potential changes to the materials scope would also need to reflect the additional costs from infrastructure requirements such as changes to collection, logistics, retrofitting, and equipment lifespan.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to review extended producer responsibility fees.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Producers were required to submit their final 2024 data by 1 April 2025. Following this deadline, we are conducting regulatory checks. Once checks are conducted to an appropriate level, we will use 2024 data and insight from regulator checks to publish pEPR base fees in June 2025.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to introduce a requirement for tethered caps on drinks before 2029.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are no plans to introduce a tethered caps requirement before 2029.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the (a) Extended Producer Responsibility and (b) Deposit Return Scheme thresholds for beverage manufacturers are applied (i) per‑brand and (ii) according to the size of the parent company.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
If a business is the brand owner of the packaging, then they must include this when determining how much packaging they handle. There is guidance available on gov.uk and the ‘Extended producer responsibility for packaging: Regulators’ agreed positions and technical interpretations’ guidance to support producers in understanding their obligation. Businesses should continue to send their compliance queries to the regulators.
We have included in the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in England regulations, a low volume products exemption to support micro producers selling less than 5,000 units per product line per year. These products can be exempt from DRS if the producer chooses to, by registering those products with the Deposit Management Organisation (DMO).