Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 10
First Report - Electronic Waste and the Circular Economy
Published 26 Nov 2020
Paragraph 71
Environmental Audit Committee Electronic Waste and the Circular Economy All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
An Extended Producer Responsibility scheme could be used to incentivise the very best practice in circular low-carbon product design. However, care must be taken to put circular economy principles at the heart of the policy and efforts made to harmonise it with wider efforts internationally. In any future producer responsibility system online marketplaces like Amazon should be responsible for ensuring that all EEE that is sold on their platforms is fully compliant with the law. Furthermore, producers should be required to pay exactly the same fees and follow the same rules selling online as they do offline.
From: Environmental Audit Committee, First Report - Electronic Waste and the Circular Economy (HC 220), paragraph 71, 26 November 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 26 February 2021 (deadline 26 January 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government says it is "committed to going further" on e-waste and will address many of the Committee's concerns through a review of the WEEE Regulations, with a consultation later this year.
- On online sellers and platforms, it recognises they "must do more" and says it will look at their obligations under the review and "consult on our proposals".
- On kerbside collection, it is "exploring options" for roll-out and will consult on options as part of the WEEE Regulations review later this year, noting kerbside collection by local authorities "may not always be the optimum solution".
- On reducing VAT on repairs, it says "there are no plans to change the VAT treatment of electronic items at present", while keeping all taxes under review.
- On the Committee's call for all electrical exports to be deemed risky, it says it "agrees" about the impact of illegal exports but notes that a legislation change would be required to make currently lawful exports higher risk or notifiable.