EPR Implementation Breaking News
There has been a press release from Defra regarding EPR this week, however they were not clear in terms of how this will impact business going forward.
Following a Teams meeting with Defra today, we are now able to clarify exactly what the new situation is:
- The new EPR Regulation, due to be published in December 2023 to enable EPR payments has been pushed back 12 months.
- This means there will be no payments due under EPR in 2024 for business, and
- The existing 2007 Packaging Regulations and the Data Reporting Regulations 2023 will remain as legal requirements.
As a consequence of this,
In 2023, companies will need to collect and report EPR data for the period January to June 2023 under EPR as originally planned, (if using a compliance scheme the deadline for this data is 31st August 2023, with signed submissions completed by 8th September). There will be no EPR fees to be paid against this reported data in 2024.
In Q1 of 2024, companies will need to collect and report data as previously under the 2007 Packaging Regulations for 2024 (2023) and pay for PRNs as usual, i.e. In 2024 the old Regulations roll-over for another year.
At the same time, in Q1 2024 companies will need to report EPR data for the period July to December 2023. Again, there will be no EPR fees to be paid against this reported data in 2024.
Data Reporting Timeline Summary
August 2023 – Report EPR data for Jan-Jun 2023
January/February 2024 – Report Packaging Regulations data as previously for Jan-Dec 2023
January/February 2024 – Report EPR data for Jul-Dec 2023