Carrier bag charge: summary of data in England
A summary of the data on single-use plastic carrier bags in England.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Since 5 October 2015, large shops in England have been required by law to charge 5 pence for all single-use plastic carrier bags. From 21 May 2021, the charge for single-use plastic carrier bags was raised to 10 pence and extended to all businesses, though the reporting requirements continue to apply to large retailers only. They are required by law to report certain information to Defra, and they provide other information on a voluntary basis.
These publications summarise the data collected by Defra for:
- the sixth year – from 7 April 2021 to 6 April 2022
- the fifth year – from 7 April 2020 to 6 April 2021
- the fourth year - from 7 April 2019 to 6 April 2020
- the third year - from 7 April 2018 to 6 April 2019
- the second year - from 7 April 2017 to 6 April 2018
- the first full year - from 7 April 2016 to 6 April 2017
- the first 6 month reporting period - from 5 October 2015 to 6 April 2016
We publish the full datasets on data.gov.uk.
Updates to this page
Last updated 31 July 2023 + show all updates
-
Added the summary data for 2022 to 2023.
-
Added the single-use plastic carrier bags charge: data for England 2021 to 2022. Added a line to state from 21 May 2021, the charge for single-use plastic carrier bags was raised to 10p and extended to all business.
-
Added the summary data for 2019 to 2020.
-
Added the 7 April 2018 to 6 April 2019 data.
-
Updated following further checks with retailers. The total voluntary donation figure for 2017 to 2018 has been revised due to errors in reporting. Other minor revisions have been made to the donation, gross and net proceeds figures for 2016 to 2017 only.
-
Added the summary data for 2017 to 2018.
-
Data added for the first full year from 7 April 2016 to 6 April 2017.
-
First published.