Exemptions from the 5p charge on carrier bags doesn't make sense for salons, says NHBF

More than 8 billion disposable carrier bags are used in England each year. According to environmentalists that’s 130 bags per person – yet on average each one is used for just 20 minutes, although they take 1000 years to degrade.

The move to introduce a 5p charge from October 2015, announced in the Queen’s Speech in June, will bring English retailers into line with what already happens in Wales and Northern Ireland.

It is expected that the definition of ‘carrier bags’ in English legislation will be similar to Wales which includes all single-use carrier bags in the charge – plastic, paper, part-plastic, recycled and bio-degradable plastic. The only bags not included in the charge are made from cloth, jute, cotton and hessian as well as thick “bag for life” plastic bags which are designed to be re-used.

After the 5p charge was introduced in Wales in 2011, carrier bag use went down by 75%, reducing from 130 bags per person to just 22.

But the key difference is that in Wales the 5p charge applies to all businesses, regardless of size. In England, next year’s change in the law will only apply to supermarkets and large businesses. Small and medium sized businesses with fewer than 250 employees will be exempt, although they can impose a voluntary charge.

On the face of it, this sounds like good news. But as Hilary Hall, Chief Executive of the National Hairdressers’ Federation said, “as well as strong environmental reasons for introducing charges to reduce the use of carrier bags, charging can also save salon owners money. Exempting small businesses makes it very confusing for consumers who will be charged in one shop, but not in another. Surely the point is to get consumers away from using bags altogether. We’d like to see the same system operating in England as it already does in Wales but with exemptions for small businesses just on the reporting requirements.”

NHBF immediate past president Mark Coray, who runs a salon in Cardiff, said:

“We have experienced both positive and negative effects from this change.

The positives are that bag usage has reduced massively, which brings with it obvious environmental benefits. The money raised for charities is also, of course, great news, with the Welsh Government last year calculating that more than £800,000 had been raised in the first year.

The negatives, especially for smaller businesses, have been that reporting requirements can be complex, and collecting and counting up all the 5ps can be time-consuming.

Businesses in Wales have had to keep an accurate record of how many single-use bags have been charged for, how much has been received as a result, the net proceeds after any deductions (for, for example, business costs or VAT) and what has been done with the proceeds.

The NHBF is supporting the position of the Association of Convenience Stores, the British Retail Consortium and the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, arguing that rather than exempting small businesses from the charge, which simply risks confusing consumers, they should be exempt from the reporting requirements.