Written Statement: Public consultation on the lower rate of Landfill Disposals Tax

I am pleased to announce the launch of a public consultation on the lower rate of Landfill Disposals Tax (LDT). The consultation focuses on potential changes to the lower rate of LDT to further incentivise recycling, reuse, and the reduction of waste that goes to landfill. 

The independent review of the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Act 2017 published on 6 July 2023, provided insight into opportunities to consider to further advance the purpose of the tax. The review also found: 

• there are several waste streams where LDT rates are not acting as a deterrent to landfill, and
• there is evidence that the gap between the lower and standard LDT rates has contributed to the misdescription of waste. 

Since the publication, officials from Welsh Government, the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) have been engaged in work to understand the misdescription of waste and the options to address such misdescription, leading to the development of this consultation. 

This work included a project to gain a better understanding of what misdescription is, where it occurs in the waste process, and the key drivers and motivations for people to misdescribe waste. I previously wrote to the Finance Committee on 18^th October 2023 to advise the committee of this work. 

I encourage all those with an interest to respond to the consultation. The consultation will be open for eight weeks, closing on 15 September 2024. After the consultation closes, I will give due consideration to all the responses and issue a report on the consultation.