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Environment minister Joan Ruddock has reiterated the government's policy that a tax in England on single-use shopping bags, both paper and plastic, would "not be effective on environmental grounds".

Ruddock said on Monday (14 January) that, following the Treasury's assessment of the Irish levy, the government had "no current plans for a national plastic bag tax".

She said that by the end of the year, there would be a review of the voluntary code of practice on carrier bags, which was launched in February 2007 and calls on supermarkets to commit to a 25% reduction in carrier bag use by the end of this year.

The review will assess the progress made and what would be required to make further reductions by 2010, said Ruddock.

Last November, Gordon Brown called on supermarkets to "go further" than the 25% commitment.

"I am convinced that we can eliminate single-use disposable bags altogether in favour of long-lasting and more sustainable alternatives," he said.

But Packaging Federation chief executive Dick Searle said the Prime Minister had sent out the wrong signals by calling for single-use carrier bags to be eliminated despite government figures showing they only accounted for 0.3% of the domestic waste stream.

Meanwhile, London Councils is awaiting the first parliamentary reading of its Bill, due by the end of the month, that would give councils the power to introduce a ban on single-use carrier bags across the capital.