To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research and opinion polling his Department has commissioned on introducing variable charging for household waste in the last 12 months. (183285)

My Department commissioned the ‘2007 Survey of Public Attitudes and Behaviours’ towards the environment, undertaken by the British Market Research Bureau, which included a section on “attitudes to recycling” and sought views on whether individuals would “favour a system that rewarded them if they recycled everything they could and penalised them if they didn’t”. 52 per cent. of residents were in favour of this statement with 23 per cent. not in favour.

In addition, Eunomia Research and Consulting Ltd. produced a report for DEFRA on the project ‘Modelling the Impact of Household Charging for Waste in England’. This report is published on DEFRA’s website.