Parliamentary debate held on the packaging industry

Following considerable (and largely uninformed) national press coverage on the subject of “excessive packaging” and a number of Early Day Motions laid down in the Commons on this subject, a Parliamentary debate on the packaging industry was held in Westminster Hall last Tuesday (12 June). BPIF Corporate Affairs Director Andrew Brown attended the debate, together with representatives of other bodies, at the invitation of Packaging Federation CEO Dick Searle.

For a full transcript of the debate click here and for a link to Parliament TV (to see the debate) click here

The debate was secured and led by Eric Isley MP (Barnsley Central – Lab), Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Packaging. Attending on behalf of the Government was Margaret Hodge (Minister of State for Industry & the Regions) and the Conservative Front Bench spokesman was Tobias Ellwood. In addition there were seven other MP's, four from the Packaging APPG (Eric Illsley (Lab), Russell Brown(Lab), John Pugh(LD) and Bob Spink(C)) plus Phillip Hollobone (C), Lorely Burt (LD) and Jo Swinson (LD). The debate was started by Eric Illsley and wrapped up by Margaret Hodge.

The debate was held under the title of "Packaging Manufacturing Industry". For the most part MPs demonstrated that they did appreciate the important role packaging pays in today’s society and its role in actually reducing waste in some areas (such as food for example), as well as an awareness of action being taken to further improve the environmental performance. However with the advent of the Government’s new Waste Strategy there is a need for the industry to continue to educate and inform, in order to correct false perceptions and to ensure the industry is not unfairly targeted relative to other sectors with higher levels of waste generation.

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