Single-use plastic carrier bags charge: data for England 2025 to 2026
Updated 30 July 2026
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2026
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carrier-bag-charge-summary-of-data-in-england/single-use-plastic-carrier-bags-charge-data-for-england-2025-to-2026
Since 5 October 2015, large retailers (those with 250 or more full-time equivalent employees) in England have been required by law to charge customers for all single-use plastic carrier bags given out. This charge was originally set at 5 pence per bag. Large retailers are also required to report certain information to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), including:
- the number of single-use carrier bags sold under the charge
- gross proceeds
- any costs incurred
- the use of the net proceeds
Retailers can provide additional information on donations and bags for life on a voluntary basis.
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 continued to apply to large retailers only. As such, the 2022 to 2023 reporting period is the first full year of data for single-use carrier bags sold at 10 pence.
This publication summarises data collected by Defra for the reporting year from 7 April 2025 to 6 April 2026. We have previously published summaries for earlier years on GOV.UK and we have published the full datasets on data.gov.uk. These datasets include the details provided by each retailer.
The data for 2020 to 2021 cannot be directly compared with other years, due to unique circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these effects may have continued to have an impact in 2021 to 2022. You can find further information related to this in the 2020 to 2021 report.
1. Summary
In the reporting year from 7 April 2025 to 6 April 2026, the total number of single-use plastic bags sold by the 94 retailers in England who reported data for the period was 399 million, down 9% since 2024 to 2025 and down 81% since 2016 to 2017, the first full year of reporting since the single-use plastic carrier bag charge was introduced. This is equivalent to around 7 single-use plastic bags per person sold by all retailers who reported data for the most recent reporting year.
Over the same period, the total number of single-use plastic bags sold by the main 7 retailers in England was 126 million, down 23% since 2024 to 2025 and down 90% since 2016 to 2017. This is equivalent to around 2 single-use plastic bags per person sold by the main retailers in 2025 to 2026.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has previously reported that the main retailers in England issued 7.6 billion single-use carrier bags in the calendar year 2014. Our data indicates that, based on this year’s return, there has been a decrease of 98% in the annual number of single-use carrier bags sold by the main retailers (over 7.5 billion fewer bags) since the charge was introduced.
From 2025 to 2026, 32% of retailers (who accounted for 91% of all bags reported for this period) voluntarily provided additional information on how they chose to donate proceeds from the carrier bag charge. In total, these retailers donated £8.7 million to good causes, bringing the total figure donated since the charge was introduced to over £234 million.
2. Single-use plastic carrier bag sales
The reported figures for the number of single-use plastic carrier bags sold between 2016 to 2017 and 2025 to 2026 are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Reported figures for the number of single-use plastic carrier bags sold in England, 2016 to 2017 to 2025 to 2026 (1), (2), (3) and (4)
| Reporting period | Main retailers (5) | Other retailers reporting data | Total (6) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 to 2017 | 1,327 million | 789 million | 2,116 million |
| 2017 to 2018 | 1,039 million | 716 million | 1,754 million |
| 2018 to 2019 | 566 million | 561 million | 1,127 million |
| 2019 to 2020 | 271 million | 358 million | 628 million |
| 2020 to 2021 | 294 million | 195 million | 489 million |
| 2021 to 2022 | 197 million | 300 million | 497 million |
| 2022 to 2023 | 160 million | 274 million | 434 million |
| 2023 to 2024 | 155 million | 252 million | 407 million |
| 2024 to 2025 | 164 million | 273 million | 437 million |
| 2025 to 2026 | 126 million | 272 million | 399 million |
Notes about Figure 1:
(1) Data for 2015 to 2016 cover 6 months (5 October 2015 to 6 April 2016) and is therefore not directly comparable to later years and not included in the chart. The results from 2015 to 2016 are: 285 retailers reported data, and 1.1 billion single-use bags were sold, 600 million of which were sold by the main retailers.
(2) Data for 2020 to 2021 cannot be compared with other years, due to the unique circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(3) Data for 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 has been updated to incorporate results for a small number of retailers who had not previously reported data at the time.
(4) A small number of retailers have previously reported data on a voluntary basis (that is, those with less than 250 employees). These retailers account for less than 0.1% of all reported bags in those years. For 2025 to 2026, 2 retailers provided data on a voluntary basis.
(5) The main retailers are Asda, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, The Co-operative Group and Waitrose. Tesco and Waitrose have reported that they did not sell any single-use plastic carrier bags from 2022 to 2023 onwards. Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s have reported that they did not sell any single-use plastic carrier bags in 2025 to 2026.
(6) Totals may not add up due to rounding.
The total number of single-use plastic carrier bags sold by the 94 retailers in England who reported data in the year from 7 April 2025 to 6 April 2026 was 399 million. This represents a 9% decrease from the 437 million bags sold by all retailers reporting data in 2024 to 2025 and an 81% decrease from the 2.1 billion sold in 2016 to 2017, the first full year of reporting since the single-use plastic carrier bag charge was introduced. The figure for 2025 to 2026 is equivalent to around 7 single-use plastic carrier bags per person sold by all retailers who reported data for the most recent reporting year.
From the 2022 to 2023 period onwards, Tesco and Waitrose have reported that they did not sell any single-use plastic carrier bags, and in 2025 to 2026, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s reported that they did not sell any single-use plastic carrier bags (compared to sales of 2 thousand and 11 million respectively in 2024 to 2025). The other main retailers (Asda, Morrisons and The Co-operative Group) together sold 126 million single-use plastic carrier bags in England in 2025 to 2026, a 23% decrease on the 164 million sold in 2024 to 2025. Asda, Morrisons, and the Co-Operative Group saw decreases of 11 thousand, 9 million, and 17 million bags respectively compared to 2024 to 2025.
The 3 out of 7 main retailers who sold single-use plastic carrier bags in the 2025 to 2026 period account for around 32% of the total bags sold by all retailers reporting data. In earlier years, the main retailers accounted for between 37% and 60% of total reported single-use plastic carrier bag sales.
This is equivalent to each person in the population purchasing around 2 single-use plastic carrier bags from the 3 main retailers who sold bags in 2025 to 2026. (Mid-year population estimates for 2025 were not available at the time of production, so 2024 estimates were used).
WRAP previously reported that the main retailers circulated 7.64 billion single-use carrier bags in England in 2014 (see WRAP’s UK Voluntary Carrier Bag Agreement – 2014 Data, covering 6 of the 7 retailers). This is equivalent to each person in the population using around 140 bags in the year before the single-use plastic carrier bag charge was introduced. The current data provided by the main retailers for the reporting year 2025 to 2026 shows a reduction of 98% on the annual number of single-use carrier bags sold since the charge was introduced.
3. Donations to good causes
From 2025 to 2026, 32% of retailers (who accounted for 91% of all bag sales reported for this period) voluntarily provided additional information on how they chose to donate proceeds from the carrier bag charge. In total, these retailers donated £8.7 million to good causes.
The total amount donated to good causes from proceeds of the single-use carrier bag charge (and reported to Defra) since its introduction in 2015 is now over £234 million. The true total is likely to be higher than this as not all retailers choose to voluntarily report donation figures.
Figure 2: Total amount donated by retailers voluntarily reporting data in England, 2016 to 2017 to 2025 to 2026 (1)
| Reporting period | Amount donated (2) |
|---|---|
| 2016 to 2017 | £65.4 million |
| 2017 to 2018 | £51.6 million |
| 2018 to 2019 | £22.9 million |
| 2019 to 2020 | £9.6 million |
| 2020 to 2021 | £11.5 million |
| 2021 to 2022 | £10.0 million |
| 2022 to 2023 | £8.8 million |
| 2023 to 2024 | £8.9 million |
| 2024 to 2025 | £7.7 million |
| 2025 to 2026 | £8.7 million |
Notes about Figure 2:
(1) Data for 2015 to 2016 covers 6 months (5 October 2015 to 6 April 2016) and is therefore not directly comparable to later years and not included in the chart. The results from 2015 to 2016 are £29.2 million was donated to good causes.
(2) The headline figures on donations are not directly comparable between years due to changes in the retailers providing this information from one year to the next.
3.1 Amounts donated to good causes
Figure 3 shows a breakdown of the total amount donated by retailers to good causes for the reporting period 2025 to 2026. The chart only covers the 30 retailers who provided this additional voluntary information (including the 3 out of 7 main retailers who still sell single-use plastic carrier bags), but of the total donated by these retailers:
- £7.5 million (87%) went to a combination of good causes, or to causes chosen by customers or staff
- £890,000 (10%) went to charity or volunteering sectors
- £240,000 (3%) went to environmental or health causes
Figure 3: Amount donated by retailers in England to different types of good causes, 2025 to 2026
| Type of good causes | Amount donated |
|---|---|
| Combined causes or chosen by customers or staff (1) | £7.5 million |
| Charity or volunteering | £0.9 million |
| Environment or health (2) | £0.2 million |
Notes about Figure 3:
(1) Combined good causes means that they are related to education, arts, heritage, sports, environment, health, charity or volunteering sectors, or are causes chosen by customers or staff.
(2) Environment or health means that it includes those that donated to environment or health causes.
3.2 Types of good causes
Figure 4 shows the types of good causes to which retailers donated for the reporting period 2025 to 2026. The chart only covers the 30 retailers who provided this additional voluntary information (including the 3 out of 7 main retailers who still sell single-use plastic carrier bags), but of these:
- 43% donated to charity or volunteering causes
- 33% donated to environmental or health causes
- 23% donated to combined good causes or to causes chosen by customers or staff
Figure 4: Percentage of retailers in England donating to different types of good causes, 2025 to 2026
| Type of good causes | Percentage of retailers donating |
|---|---|
| Charity or volunteering | 43% |
| Environment or health (1) | 33% |
| Combined causes or chosen by customers or staff (2) | 23% |
Notes about Figure 4:
(1) Environment or health means that it includes those that donated to environment or health causes.
(2) Combined good causes means that they are related to education, arts, heritage, sports, environment, health, charity or volunteering sectors, or are causes chosen by customers or staff.
4. Retailers’ responsibilities
We rely on retailers who fall within the scope of the carrier bag charge to register and report their single-use plastic carrier bag data, as we have no way of externally verifying that all in-scope retailers have submitted their data.
For the 2025 to 2026 reporting year, all retailers were required to charge a minimum of 10 pence per bag for carrier bags that meet all of the following criteria:
- unused – it is new and has not already been used for sold goods to be taken away or delivered
- plastic and up to 70 microns thick
- has handles, an opening and is not sealed
However, retailers with fewer than 250 employees are not required to report data to Defra.
Retailers are not required by law to report on carrier bag use if they:
- do not distribute bags within the above definition of single-use plastic carrier bags
- only distribute paper bags or ‘bags for life’
- are small and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 250 full-time equivalent employees (although some report data on a voluntary basis)
Some bags are exempt from the charge, although retailers can choose to charge for them. These include plastic bags that are solely used to contain certain items, including:
- uncooked meat, poultry and fish
- unwrapped food for animal or human consumption
- unwrapped loose seeds
- flowers
- unwrapped blades
- prescription medicine
Retailers do not have to charge if the bag only contains these items but must charge if other items are added.
Read more about retailers’ responsibilities.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the legal obligation for retailers to charge for, and report the number of, single-use plastic carrier bags supplied with online deliveries (online grocery delivery bags) was temporarily removed from 21 March 2020 to 21 September 2020. The impacts of this temporary lifting of the reporting requirements will mainly be seen in the results for the 2020 to 2021 reporting period.
Four retailers provided estimates for the number of online grocery single-use bags that they distributed for free during the overlap between this exemption period and the 2020 to 2021 reporting period. These 4 retailers estimated that they distributed 286 million online grocery bags (without charge) during the exemption period.
5. Notes on the data
Table 1 shows the numbers of retailers reporting data on single-use plastic carrier bag sales.
Table 1: Total number of retailers reporting data and number of retailers voluntarily reporting data on single-use carrier bag sales in England, 2016 to 2017 to 2025 to 2026.
| Reporting period | Total number reporting data | Number voluntarily reporting data |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 to 2017 | 261 | 0 |
| 2017 to 2018 | 249 | 0 |
| 2018 to 2019 (1) | 221 | 6 |
| 2019 to 2020 | 194 | 4 |
| 2020 to 2021 | 166 | 5 |
| 2021 to 2022 | 154 | 1 |
| 2022 to 2023 | 120 | 0 |
| 2023 to 2024 | 114 | 1 |
| 2024 to 2025 | 104 | 2 |
| 2025 to 2026 | 94 | 2 |
Notes about Table 1:
(1) In 2018 to 2019, some retailers did not understand the basis for the mandatory or voluntary field, so this was amended based on the number of employees they reported.
In total, 87 retailers reported data in both 2024 to 2025, and 2025 to 2026, and these retailers accounted for over 98% of all single-use carrier bags sold in each of these reporting periods. The change in retailers reporting is unlikely to have a significant impact on trends for the aggregate figures.
For the 2025 to 2026 reporting year:
- 7 retailers provided data in 2025 to 2026 who had not reported in 2024 to 2025, 2 of these provided data for the first time, and one was a merger of 3 existing companies reporting under a new name. These 7 retailers account for 1.6% of the total number of single-use bags reported for 2025 to 2026
- 17 retailers who submitted data for 2024 to 2025 did not respond or report data for 2025 to 2026. In 2024 to 2025, these retailers accounted for 4.6% of the total number of single-use bags
- 10 retailers not reporting in 2025 to 2026 notified us that they have stopped issuing single-use plastic carrier bags and are therefore no longer obligated to report data. These retailers accounted for 2.7% of the single-use bags sold in 2024 to 2025
- 4 retailers no longer reporting in 2025 to 2026 are no longer operating. One retailer has been purchased by another company and is reporting under the other company’s name. 3 retailers have merged and have reported under a new name
- 2 retailers who did not report, did not notify us of the reasons for not supplying the information, and one retailer provided their data too late for inclusion in the 2025 to 2026 update. These retailers together sold 149,000 bags in 2024 to 2025
- The data for the latest year 2025 to 2026 are not exactly comparable against the data from the previous year for 2024 to 2025, owing to differences in the list of retailers who provided data. However, this difference in the retailers reporting is unlikely to have a significant impact to the overall aggregate figure or the trend
Retailers provide data on donations on a voluntary basis. Changes in retailers who reported donation information mean that direct comparison across years is not appropriate. This data was provided by:
-
30 retailers (32%) in 2025 to 2026. They accounted for 91% of all bags reported in 2025 to 2026. The 3 main retailers who sold single-use carrier bags in 2025 to 2026 (Asda, Morrisons and The Co-operative) all reported their donations
- 33 retailers (32%) in 2024 to 2025. They accounted for 90% of all bags reported in 2024 to 2025. Two of the main retailers, Asda and Sainsbury’s (who sold single-use carrier bags in 2024 to 2025) did not report their donations
- 42 retailers (37%) in 2023 to 2024. They accounted for 87% of all bags reported in 2023 to 2024. One of the main retailers, Sainsbury’s, (who sold single-use carrier bags in 2023 to 2024) did not report their donations
- 48 retailers (40%) in 2022 to 2023. They accounted for 90% of all bags reported in 2022 to 2023. One of the main retailers, Sainsbury’s, (who sold single-use carrier bags in 2022 to 2023) did not report their donations – their donations for 2021 to 2022 were £0.3 million
- 65 retailers (42% of retailers who reported) in 2021 to 2022. They accounted for 91% of all bags reported for 2021 to 2022
- 64 retailers (38% of retailers who reported) in 2020 to 2021. They accounted for 82% of all bags reported for 2020 to 2021. Marks and Spencer and Waitrose did not report – their combined donations for 2019 to 2020 were £0.9 million
- 78 retailers (40% of retailers who reported) in 2019 to 2020. They accounted for 78% of all bags reported for 2019 to 2020. Sainsbury’s did not report – their donations for 2018 to 2019 were £2.2 million
- 121 retailers (55% of retailers who reported) in 2018 to 2019. They accounted for 57% of all bags reported for 2018 to 2019. The Co-operative Group and Waitrose did not report – their combined donations for 2017 to 2018 were £7.7 million
- 153 retailers (61% of retailers who reported) in 2017 to 2018. They accounted for 77% of all bags reported for that period. Marks and Spencer did not report
- 167 retailers (64% of retailers who reported) in 2016 to 2017. They accounted for 81% of all bags reported for that period