England introduced a 5p charge on single-use plastic carrier bags at large retailers in October 2015, raised it to 10p and extended it to all retailers in May 2021. The government publishes annual sales data from the largest retailers.
In the year to April 2026, the 94 retailers that reported data sold 399 million single-use bags, down 9% on the previous year and 81% since 2016 to 2017, when 2.1 billion were sold in the first full year of the charge. The main 7 supermarkets sold 126 million, down 98% from the 7.6 billion they gave out in 2014, before the charge.
The bag charge matters as one of the clearest natural experiments in plastic policy: a small price signal changed behaviour at scale and has been copied worldwide.
The data cover only large retailers' single-use bags, not thicker 'bags for life', which use more plastic each. So the figures count bags, not plastic.