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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the health risks, if any, posed by three-weekly rubbish collections during hot weather.

The Government has not made an assessment of the health risks of three-weekly collections. Currently only a small minority of local authorities in England provide a three-weekly residual waste collection. The Government supports frequent and comprehensive rubbish and recycling collections. We want to ensure that householders are not inconvenienced by being unable to get rid of putrescent or smelly waste weekly or having insufficient capacity to recycle or to remove residual waste.

Through new powers in the Environment Act 2021, local authorities will be required to provide a separate food waste collection to every household in England. Local authorities must implement at least weekly food waste collections and should continue to provide residual waste collections at an appropriate frequency, to ensure they are meeting their legal duty and to prevent any build-up of waste that could be harmful to public health.