Plastic Bag Charge Bill

A Bill to render a charge on the usage of plastic bags in retail settings.

BE IT ENACTED by The Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1: Definitions

For the purposes of this act —

(1) A plastic bag means a bag made of a lightweight plastic material, other than an excluded bag.

(2) The following are excluded bags —

(a) unwrapped food bag, a bag intended to be used only to contain unwrapped food.

(b) prescription-only medicine bag, a bag intended to be used only to contain a prescription-only medicine, a pharmacy medicine or an appliance sold in accordance with a prescription.

(c) reusable bag, a bag that is intended to be returnable to the seller from whom it was purchased to be replaced free of charge.

(3) "local authority" means, in relation to —

(a) the City of London, the Common Council for the City of London.

(b) for the rest of London, the London borough council for that area.

(c) an area in the rest of the United Kingdom, the county council or unitary authority for that area.

2: Obligation to Charge

(1) If a business with more than twenty employees —

(a) provides a plastic bag to a customer on or after the commencement of this Act and —

(i) the plastic bag is provided to the customer for the purpose of enabling goods to be taken away, the business must charge a minimum of 5 pence (including tax) for each plastic bag supplied.

(2) Nothing in this section shall prohibit a seller from providing customers, without charge, any form of bag other than what is defined as a plastic bag in Section 1.1 of this Act.

(3) A business with more than five-hundred employees must offer customers a form of reusable bag as an alternative to a plastic bag.

3: Administration of Act

(1) The relevant local authority is to be appointed as the administrator of this Act.

(2) In Section 3.1, "the relevant local authority" is—

(a) in the case of a plastic bag supplied within the United Kingdom, for the purpose of enabling the goods to be taken away, the local authority for the area in which the goods are sold.

(b) in the case of a plastic bag dispatched from within the United Kingdom, which is delivering goods to a person within the United Kingdom, the local authority for the area where the goods are dispatched from.

(c) in the case of a plastic bag dispatched from outside the United Kingdom, which is delivering goods to a person within the United Kingdom, the local authority for the area where the goods are destined.

4: Enforcement of Act

(1) A seller is in breach of this Act if they fail to charge in accordance with Section 2.1 of this Act or fail to offer a reusable bag alternative in accordance with Section 2.3 of this Act.

(2) In the event an administrator is satisfied that a seller is in breach of this Act, they may issue the seller with a monetary penalty not exceeding that of £500.

5: Allocation of Funds Raised

(1) The funds raised from this charge shall be allocated as follows —

(a) 50% shall be allocated towards environmentally friendly programs of the local authorities choice.

(b) 25% shall be distributed to local charities of the local authorities choice.

(c) 25% shall be allocated towards community projects of the local authorities choice.

6: Extent, Commencement and Short Title

(1) This Act extends to the whole of the United Kingdom.

(2) This Act comes into force on 1st January 2017.

(3) This Act may be cited as the Plastic Bag Charge Act 2016.

This bill is written by /u/Joker8765 on behalf of the Labour Party.

The voting period for this bill will end at 10PM BST on the 21st of October.

Vote Aye, No or Abstain. Comments with anything else will be deleted. Comments that are edited will be void and not counted.

If a member is voting by proxy, they must have gained permission from the speaker prior to this vote. If no permission was sought and granted, their vote will not be counted.

For full clarifications on the voting system see this post.