Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessments his Department has made of the effect of differing levels of incineration tax on the amount of waste going to (a) incineration and (b) recycling.

A number of respondents to last year’s call for evidence on single use plastic waste suggested that an incineration tax could discourage incineration and promote other forms of waste management such as recycling.

At Budget 2018, the Chancellor announced that he would not at this point be taking forward a tax on the incineration of waste. However, should wider policies not deliver the government’s waste ambitions, government will consider the introduction of such a tax, in conjunction with landfill tax, taking account of the possible impacts on local authorities.