Carrier bag charges introduced from 5 October

Carrier bag charges introduced from 5 October

Starting on Monday 5 October 2015, carrier bag charges will be introduced in England.

From Monday, all businesses with 250 or more employees will be required to charge 5p for each single use carrier bag they provide to customers. The charges apply to shopping in store as well as home delivery and click-and-collect services.

Retailers who have less than 250 employees are not required to charge for carrier bags and if the store is part of a franchise, then the charge is determined by how many people work at that particular franchise.

A charge will not apply for bags used in store to wrap uncooked meat, fish or other food for human or animal consumption.

Employers who are required to charge for bags need to report to DEFRA, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, annually on or before 31 May, detailing the number of bags they distributed in a given year, how much they charged for the bags and what they did with the proceeds.

These records need to be kept for three years and any company that does not comply could face charges of between £100 and £20,000.

The bag tax has already been implemented in other parts of the UK, including Wales, where statistics show that carrier bag usage dropped by more than 78% since the charge was introduced in 2010.

Northern Ireland introduced the charge in 2012 and has seen a 71% drop in use and Scotland has recorded an 80% drop since the charge was introduced last year.