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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of re-instating the pause on the building of new waste incinerators.

Determining the need and location for waste management infrastructure is a matter for the relevant planning authority. To support decision making the Government has made it clear we only back new Energy from Waste projects if they meet strict local and environmental conditions. Projects are expected to demonstrate a clearly defined domestic residual waste treatment capacity need to facilitate the diversion of residual waste away from landfill, or enable the replacement of older, less-efficient facilities. Additionally, new facilities will have to maximise efficiency and support the delivery of economic growth, net zero and the move to a circular economy.

We are considering how best to reflect the approach in this statement in the new set of national policies for development management which we have committed to producing, and in updates to National Policy Statements.

The Government encourages those developing energy recovery facilities (at all stages in the process) to consider forecast changes to future capacity, demand, and the Government's circular economy opportunities.