Bag charge may not be best option for England

The government has been under increasing pressure in recent months to push forward with the measure with support coming from the Liberal Democrat party, the Greater London Authority, and the Break the Bag Habit campaign, which includes the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and Keep Britain Tidy.

In October 2012, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) farming minister David Heath said that the Department would decide sooner or later whether a charge would be imposed (see letsrecycle.com story).

But, the latest comments from Mr Benyon, the Conservative MP for Newbury, provide the strongest hint yet that the government is unlikely to follow the lead of the Welsh and Northern Irish administrations in forcing retailers to charge for bags.

In a written response to a question by Labour MP Nick Brown on what assessment the government had made on a bag charge published on Tuesday (February 5), Mr Benyon said that Defra would continue to examine the progress of levies by the devolved governments, but warned that it may not be the suitable in England due to shrinking household budgets.

He said: We are currently assessing various measures to reduce the distribution of single use carrier bags. This includes monitoring the results of the single-use charging scheme in Wales, Northern Irelands plan to launch a charge from April 2013 and the outcome of the Scottish consultation on a charge.

However, we recognise the pressures on household budgets at this time; levying even a small charge may not be the best option.

Last month, the Northern Irish government announced that a five pence levy on single-use bags would come into effect from April 8 2013, in a bid to reduce bag usage by as much as 80%. This is planned to rise to ten pence from April 2014.

The Welsh Assembly Government was the first UK government to impose a charge on single use bags, when it introduced a five pence levy in October 2011. Retailers estimated that the number of single-use bags issued has fallen by as much as 96% (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Scottish Government has also begun the move toward charging for single use bags, and carried out a public consultation on the measure in June 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).