The last remnants of Defra’s “world-leading” environmental policies spilled out on Friday, when a whole series of documents were dumped on its website.

It all had the air of a sneaky fly-tipper casting a quick glance over their shoulder before dumping their rubbish and heading off in a white van. Defra appears to hope it won’t get caught, or at least get noticed. It chose the quietest time of the week to leak the documents, and MPs have already jetted off on their holidays.

Among the pile was a new strategy called ‘Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste’, in which environment minister Rebecca Pow declared “this government means business when it comes to preventing waste”.

It was, she said, “targeting the sectors responsible for the biggest impacts on the environment and working with business to take the right steps for better use of our precious resources”.

So what does this entail? It has a new policy aimed at tackling fast fashion, to keep textiles out of landfill and in circulation for longer through reuse, plans to make sure vapes are disposed of properly and a tinkering of regulations concerning the environmental impact of batteries.

All issues when it comes to waste and carbon, yes. But what about food waste, the sector responsible for up to 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN?

On this front, it appears Defra is far from “meaning business”. On Friday, it emerged it had ditched plans for mandatory reporting among large food businesses, first promised by Michael Gove back in 2018 to huge fanfare.

Incredibly, it made the backtrack – first reported by The Grocer earlier this month – despite acknowledging “widespread support” for mandatory reporting among businesses and campaign groups alike. So much so that 80% of respondents to its consultation backed plans for the compulsory annual gathering of and reporting on food waste figures by big food companies.

The justification used by the department is truly scandalous. It notes “only” 39% of companies responding to the consultation identified as the sort of large businesses that would be affected, i.e. they have 250 employees plus.

Never mind that those who did respond, in Defra’s words, “reflected the majority of businesses from hospitality, manufacturing, primary producers and retail sectors”, including Tesco, the UK’s biggest food retailer. It thinks more weight should be given to those who didn’t bother to offer their views.

Aside from that twisted logic, Defra trots out the line that mandatory reporting would cost businesses almost £70m over the space of 12 years, compared to just £12m for an alternative plan that would instead encourage more voluntary reporting.

That alternative plan is an industry Field Force, described as a dedicated team of food waste experts. In reality, this is a tiny group of just seven individuals led by food waste body Wrap. The group has itself argued strongly and consistently of the need for mandatory reporting, encouraged by the bitter experience of a voluntary approach alone.

Progress has been so slow on voluntary food waste reporting that, in March, Wrap and IGD were forced to relaunch their landmark Food Waste Reduction Roadmap with new, watered down targets.

At the time, Wrap said delays in the introduction of mandatory reporting were partly to blame for only a third of major food and drink companies signing up to the roadmap. We can only presume these were the same third that backed mandatory reporting in Defra’s now seemingly pointless voluntary roll call.

In effect Defra is asking the UK’s finest food waste experts to lead an approach they don’t agree with, along with an 80% majority, in the hope that a bit of extra funding will keep them quiet. What could possibly go wrong?

How quickly ministers appear to have forgotten a report by Tesco and the WWF in October last year, which revealed more than six million meals worth of edible food go to waste before even making it out of the farm gate. It too called for urgent government action, including mandatory reporting.

In truth, ministers have known for years the voluntary approach is not going to be enough if the UK is serious about hitting its food waste and carbon reduction targets.

In 2019, the summer after first revealing the government would require annual reporting of food waste data (something Tesco had been doing since 2013), Gove famously made a speech at Kew Gardens. Facing questions over what some saw as overly drastic proposals, he posed a question of his own: “If not now, then when?”

On Friday we got the answer, or at least confirmation of the “not” part. Defra says the voluntary approach will remain in place until mid-2025 “at a minimum”, at which point a review will be undertaken.

So how does that fit with Wrap’s statement to The Grocer that the industry needs to go “much further and much faster” if it is to hit its target of halving food waste by 2030? The answer is obvious to anyone but Defra and the ministers responsible for its bungled strategies.

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