On Tuesday 5th of September the second day of Parliament since the Summer Caroline Ansell, the Eastbourne MP began a brief discussion about Plastic Packaging Tax and her comments were responded by Gareth Davies who is the Exchequer Secretary for the Government and he is the MP for Grantham and Stamford. Along with the question from Caroline there was also a comment from Kerry McCarthy after Caroline spoke and so all of the questions and answers can be obtained from here. However the majority of the text is here which was relating to Caroline and Gareth so a focus on Eastbourne.

Caroline: What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the plastic packaging tax.

Gareth: 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.

Caroline: 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?

Gareth: 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.