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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made towards meeting the recovery target for construction and demolition waste in the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC); and what steps she is taking to meet and enforce that target.

The construction and demolition sector has made great strides in reducing the amount of waste that is sent to landfill. We are required to report on the recovery of construction and demolition waste across the UK, with a target of achieving a recovery rate of at least 70% by 2020. It is challenging to measure progress against this target and the methodology is being reviewed, but provisional estimates indicate that England is achieving a recovery rate that is comfortably above 70%, with the amount landfilled having decreased by over 40% between 2008 and 2012.