Good afternoon,
Last week the Prime Minister announced that the UK Parliamentary General Election will be held on 4 July 2024.
On the 25 May, we entered the pre-election period during which time there are restrictions on government activity and Parliament will dissolve on 30 May. To ensure the smooth functioning of the government and public services during this time, essential business will continue. However, in line with the Civil Service Code and Ministerial Code, the Department (Defra) will not initiate new activity.
As a result, we will temporarily pause our regular stakeholder communications and meetings until the conclusion of the pre-election period. This includes the Resources and Waste – Business Readiness, Local Authority Engagement and Waste Management forums in June and July. If you have registered for any of these forums, you will receive a cancellation shortly.
We appreciate you will be keen to understand the status of key Resources and Waste policies and have provided a summary below.
- We continue to prepare for the implementation of our Collection and Packaging Reforms programme which includes Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging, the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers, Simpler Recycling (SR) and Digital Waste Tracking (DWT) to previously communicated timescales.
- EPR for packaging is underway and producers should continue to enrol and submit their packaging data. If any producers require support to submit their data ahead of the 31 May 2024 deadline, please contact the EPR help desk via email or call phone number 0300 060 0002.
- The notification process for EPR for packaging and DRS for drinks containers regulations will continue and next steps will be agreed with ministers following the General Election. Both sets of regulations were notified to the World Trade Organization and the European Union in April and May 2024.
- We recently shared the Simpler Recycling for England policy next steps, and we continue to prepare and support local authorities and waste collectors to implement Simpler Recycling to non-household municipal premises ahead of March 2025. The commencement regulations came into force on 17 May and ‘The Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2024’ were laid in Parliament on 21 May 2024. No further regulations can be made until Parliament is sitting again. Please do continue to familiarise yourself with the recent government response confirmed in early May – Exemptions and statutory guidance for simpler recycling in England and Simpler recycling in England: additional policies.
- We continue to work towards introducing Digital Waste Tracking across the UK from April 2025, to enable us to track waste movements in real time.
- Additionally and more widely, the single-use vapes ban known as Disposable Vapes regulations were notified to the World Trade Organization (April 2024) and continue through the process. Next steps will then be agreed with ministers following the General Election.
- We appreciate businesses will be keen to understand the position on the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment consultation. Our teams continue to work through the consultation responses, and we aim to communicate the government’s response following the General Election.
In this pre-election period, we will continue to provide stakeholders with updates on operational matters and share relevant technical information to support with the implementation of relevant policies. Essential business that ensures the continued smooth functioning of government and public services will continue.
You are a trusted stakeholder, and we want to assure you that communications will resume promptly after this period concludes. In the meantime, if you have any urgent questions, you can email us.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
Regards,
Resources and Waste Directorate Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs