Plastic Packaging
Tax
(Eastbourne) (Con)
9. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of
the plastic packaging tax
(906201)
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury ()
In April this year the Government announced that we would conduct
a formal review of the plastic packaging
tax through analysis of environmental and tax data and
customer research to assess the impact of the measure. More
information about the evaluation will be published later this
year.
I am pleased to share that a business in my Eastbourne
constituency has made many important changes in the way it
operates in order to meet its own environmental ambitions, but
when it comes to the transportation of food and pharmaceutical
products, industry standards linked to public health regulations
require such products to be transported in sterile packaging,
which necessitates the use of virgin plastics and brings the
containers that the business produces into scope for
the plastic packaging tax
Is there a new direction I can share with that business, or will
ongoing policy reviews look at such cases?
The aim of the plastic packaging
tax is to provide a clear incentive for businesses to use
more recycled plastic in packaging. Following extensive
consultation, we looked at a range of possible exemptions and
decided to limit those exemptions because we want to encourage
innovation in the industry. Put simply, the more exemptions, the
less innovation. However, all taxes remain, of course, under
review.
(Bristol East) (Lab)
A proactive approach to a circular economy could create hundreds
of thousands of jobs and cut our consumption emissions. What
circular taxation measures is the Treasury looking at to help us
achieve those outcomes?
We are clear that we want all taxes relating to the environment
to have an impact. The plastic packaging tax
for example, will clearly have an impact on the amount of
recycling that takes place and on the amounts put into landfill.
Those are all things that we assess as part of evaluations, and
the plastic packaging
tax will be evaluated this year.
