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The Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP) has criticised the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for focusing on developing strategies and reports and "not having the resources to focus on action".

Defra is currently focusing on the proposed changes to the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations, following the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit (PMSU) food report.

But ACP chair John Turner expressed concerns that budget pressures would lead to efforts being put into research rather than action. "Resources are tight, but government departments are presented with a lot of issues to look at that suck up a lot of time.

"We're concerned they might be working on issues they have looked at before," he said.

At the last ACP meeting in July, Defra said the PMSU report was a "good opportunity" to look beyond EU targets at the "broader packaging landscape" and develop a single packaging policy document by the end of October.

Defra did assure the committee that there were resources available for action and new staff would be joining the team.

The ACP also urged the government to revise the guidance for "broadly equivalent" assessment of exported packaging recycling to be "rolled forward" to include more up to date information.

Turner said if the evidence from 2007 was not included, the metal targets for 2008 would be missed.

The full minutes for the meeting are available here.