Contribution
It is a real pleasure, as always, to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I thank the hon. Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) for setting the scene so well, as always.
EPR is a UK-wide strategy aimed at addressing issues with waste and improving recycling. I often give a Northern Ireland perspective, and we are part of this because the EPR applies to Northern Ireland too. We have been doing our best with our local councils to encourage better recycling strategies and to get our waste management under control. EPR is a decent and progressive strategy that aims to do that. It is good to be here to give a Northern Ireland perspective to the debate, as always.
In Northern Ireland, recycling rates vary wildly between councils. I am pleased that Ards and North Down council has taken significant steps to improve waste figures across the borough where I live. Northern Ireland households produce some 1 million tonnes of waste annually, with packaging a substantial fraction of that. Before I was elected to Parliament, I was in the Assembly and on the council back home. I am going to age myself by saying that I remember when the council brought in recycling, with the introduction of the blue bins. I was not quite sure what it meant, and neither were my constituents, but now we are all focused on what we can recycle. I have my son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren staying with me—wee Freya is seven and wee Ezra is three. At that age, they know what is to be recycled. It is incredible that at that age they are working for the future. Whenever granddad goes to put something in the bin, if I have not put it in the right bin they will tell me which the right bin is—out of the mouths of babes and sucklings does the wisdom flow.
Under EPR many producers in Northern Ireland that were previously outside heavy regulation must register and report packaging data. It is important that we have the data, because that is how we can show improvements. The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland has suggested that many smaller businesses were unaware of or confused by the guidance around EPR, and sometimes that is the case.
I have three asks for the Minister. I welcome her to her place—I should have done that earlier; I apologise. I think we all know that she is totally committed to this, so we will get very helpful answers later in the debate. On the financial costs—packaging fees and the cost of compliance schemes, for example—small businesses often have limited liquidity. It is important that we make that point. Even modest annual EPR fees can cause strain if margins are tight or the volume of packaging is not the same. That needs to be looked at, to ensure that small businesses are not forced into closure because they cannot keep up with EPR costs. Will the Minister ensure that we can work alongside small businesses and navigate the roles that they have to play within the financial restrictions that they have?
I think of the small businesses in my constituency, which are the backbone of the community. I would hate to think that the transitional support is not there to guide them through this change, so I again ask the Minister to make sure that that support is there; I know that she has discussions with DAERA in Northern Ireland. Government must make allowances and ensure that the EPR process is as accessible as possible.
Recent data show that UK households produced around 5.6 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2023—a massive environmental burden—due to single-use packaging and over-packaging. This scheme shifts the cost of dealing with vast quantities of packaging waste from local councils and taxpayers to the producers who generate the waste in the first place, but there are also concerns about whether our recycling and waste management infrastructure is ready to cope with the increased volumes and the more stringent sorting. We have reached targets, but we want to do better, and we need a wee bit of Government help to ensure that that gets across.
There is a proportion of businesses, including some in Northern Ireland, facing disproportionate burdens under EPR, from increased costs to reporting complexity. The Government need to work alongside DAERA and the Northern Ireland Assembly to ensure that there is a pathway to accessibility and that the viability of our small businesses is not undermined. I am very grateful to the hon. Member for Gower for raising the issue today, and I look forward to engaging further. I know the Minister will engage with us all, and with the Assembly, and that is really important.