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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what data his Department holds on the number of local authorities that have provided weekly bin collections in (a) 2010, (b) 2015 and (c) 2020.

According to data from the Waste and Resources Action Programme, the number of local authorities providing a weekly residual waste collection was (a) 202 in 2009/10, (b) 172 in 2014/15 and (c) 147 in 2019/20. In the data set, some local authorities may appear in more than one frequency category as they may operate several different schemes across their area. There are also a small number of local authorities who provide a residual waste collection more frequently than weekly.

The frequency of waste collections is for local authorities to determine. The Government supports comprehensive and frequent rubbish and recycling services and is developing proposals on consistent recycling collections, including requiring weekly food waste collections from all households in England.