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.

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).