Mary Creagh 'no longer in Defra circular economy minister role'
ByNeil MerrettThe official Parliament website confirmed that Creagh’s service as parliamentary under-secretary for the department, where she held responsibility for policy concerning the circular economy and. . .
ByNeil MerrettThe official Parliament website confirmed that Creagh’s service as parliamentary under-secretary for the department, where she held responsibility for policy concerning the circular economy and environmental targets,ended on 22 July. Her final day in the role fell almost two years to the date that she was appointed as a Defra minister following the 2024 General Election. Creagh’s departure from the role follows the announcement that Labour MP Dame Angela Eaglehad replaced Emam Reynolds as the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairsas Andy Burnham this week assumed the role of UK prime minister. At the time of going to press, Defra had not set out the exact responsibilities of ministers concerning the circular economy and environmental protection work. The department told MRW that all briefs for ministers “will be set out shortly. ”In a social media post,Creagh confirmed that she no longer held a government role,while stating that she had been proud of her time working as the UK’s first nature minister. She used the post to play up what she viewed as some of the core developments during her time in the role. This included progress linked to circular economy, action on food waste and addressing concerns about fly-tippers. Other notable changes that Creagh highlighted from her time as a minister included overseeing the reintroduction of beavers to select environments across England as part of nature protection policy and the creation of three new national forest areas. She praised civil servants in Defra for their support. Creagh said in the statement: “I’m sorry to be leaving government but that’s politics. I’ll be supporting our new prime minister from the back benches. ”A period of reformCreagh’s time in the role has coincided with the introduction of a range of policy reforms such as the extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) regime, and the phased implementation of standardised waste and recycling collections across England. These changes, known as the simpler recycling reforms, introduced mandatory requirements for the separation of collection of specific groupings of waste from workplaces and then households across the country. While Creagh was serving as circular economy minister, the Government has also committed to launch a Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) for drink containers across Northern Ireland and England from October next year. A separate, but interoperable DRS is also planned in Scotland that will be managed under the same Exchange for Change management body. Creagh’s time with the department also saw the Governmentappointing an independent taskforce of expertswith the aim to encourage and prioritise reuse, repair and redistribution across a range of industries on a more consistent national scale. An initial aim of the taskforce was to implement a circular economy strategy. However, these aims were later rebranded into a Circular Economy Growth Plan that has been delayed with the stated aim to be released this year. An expectation for the plan is to drive circular methods of waste reduction across different industries such as the textiles sector. No confirmed date has currently been set for when the plan will be published, withindustry bodies calling for the process to be expedited.