Draft Environmental Protection (Plastic Plates etc. and Polystyrene Containers etc.) (England) Regulations 2023

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Tuesday 4th July 2023 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Rebecca Pow)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Environmental Protection (Plastic Plates etc. and Polystyrene Containers etc.) (England) Regulations 2023.

It is a pleasure to have you in the Chair, Mrs Harris—and particularly in those glasses, if I may say so. I think you are the envy of the room. The regulations were laid before the House on 23 May and their purpose is to restrict the supply of single-use plastic plates, bowls and trays and to ban the supply of single-use plastic cutlery, balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drink containers, including cups. This statutory instrument applies to England only as environmental protection is a devolved matter. I will cover both its purpose and its impact, starting with the former.

It is the Government’s ambition to leave the environment in a better state for the next generation. Our 25-year environment plan and resources and waste strategy outline the steps we will take to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042. Government measures focus on extracting maximum value from plastic materials by making sure that we keep them in circulation for longer, moving away from the take, make and throw model and shifting towards a circular economy. Single-use plastic items are especially problematic as they are typically littered or discarded to general waste, rather than recycled, because of the difficulty in segregating, cleaning and processing them.

The statutory instrument will restrict and ban commonly littered single-use plastic items that we so often see polluting our environment and that are, sadly, frequently reported in beach litter surveys. Such items can then endanger wildlife and damage habitats. As well as the items causing damage to biodiversity, there are costs associated with their clean-up. It is estimated that the UK spends more than £15 million each year just on removing beach litter. I think all those present will agree that that is a colossal waste of money that we should not really have to spend. That amount does not include the costs imposed on our tourism and fishing industries, which are also impacted.

As is well understood, plastic eventually breaks down into microplastics that end up in our soils and seas and eventually permeate our food chains. The full impact of microplastics, especially on human health, is still being uncovered. To build on the success of the bans of other single-use plastic items and our carrier bag charge, further action is needed to curtail the use of problematic single-use plastic items and their release into the environment.

Let me turn to the statutory instrument’s impact. We acknowledge the ongoing voluntary action that industry is taking to reduce the use of the relevant items. That action is led by the UK plastics pact, which has done really beneficial work. The new regulations will provide support and ensure that all businesses move to more sustainable alternatives.

To inform the regulations, we gathered the views of key stakeholders by running a public consultation on the measures, between November 2021 and February 2022. The consultation showed overwhelming support for the measures, with more than 80% of respondents supporting their introduction. We also consulted a range of businesses, the NHS and charities to determine the regulations’ scope. To minimise the impact on small businesses, we have given a nine-month lead-in time since the announcement of the ban. It is intended that the instrument will come into force on 1 October this year, from when it will be an offence to supply single-use plastic cutlery, balloon sticks and certain types of polystyrene, with no exemptions.

The ban on the supply of single-use plates, trays and bowls will apply only when the items are supplied to the end user—typically, a consumer will then use the item for its intended purpose. Businesses can continue to supply the items to other businesses, thereby allowing the continuing use of single-use plastic plates, trays and bowls for packaging, as defined in regulation 3 of the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2015. This will avoid confusion with the Government’s proposals for extended producer responsibility for packaging, which will make producers responsible for the costs of their packaging throughout its cycle. Those items will, then, be captured elsewhere, although it is important to stress that in all cases we encourage businesses to use reusable alternatives where practical.

We are determined to get this right and it is vital that businesses and the public are informed about what they can and cannot do. We have recently published guidance for businesses, and we will publish our guidance for local authorities in advance of the instrument coming into force. The guidance will assist manufacturers, suppliers, retailers and the public in understanding the enforcement and sanctions regime. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs intends to raise awareness further by meeting local authority representatives to provide clarity and support on the restrictions and the exemptions, and to empower trading standards officers to carry out effective enforcement.

The instrument also amends the Environmental Protection (Plastic Straws, Cotton Buds and Stirrers) (England) Regulations 2020 and the Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (England) Regulations 2017. It amends the civil sanctions provision in those instruments to provide for fixed monetary penalties instead of variable monetary penalties. There was a great deal of discussion and consultation about this. The change was actually called for, because fixed penalties would be easier to understand and to apply. The amendments will ensure consistency with the civil sanctions provisions in the instrument before the Committee and will make enforcement easier for local authorities. The amendments to the 2020 regulations also remove a transitional provision relating to medical devices, which is no longer needed.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

I know the Minister is about to finish, but before she sits down, will she say whether local authorities, which are broadly the enforcers of the measure, will be given extra resources?

[Rebecca Pow]

There has been full consultation on the funding that will be required for trading standards departments to carry out the duties that will fall to them. It amounts to approximately £660,000 a year over three years, and local authorities have agreed that that is an adequate sum. There was much negotiation with them to make sure that the funding was in the right ballpark, but such measures are always reviewed three to five years after implementation to see how they are working and whether any tweaks are needed. I can therefore assure the right hon. Lady that resources have been discussed and clarified.

Finally, I have to mention a typographical error in the draft instrument. The heading preceding regulation 40, “Part 1: Amendments”, should be “Part 6”. I am glad that somebody spotted that. Our intention is to correct the error before the instrument is made.

I believe the regulations send a strong signal to industry and the public that we need to think really carefully about the products we buy, the materials from which they are made, and what is being put on the market. The instrument will definitely bring us a step closer to protecting the environment and reducing the risk of harm to human health and marine life. I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rebecca Pow]

First, although there were a number of questions—I have come to expect nothing less—I thank the shadow Minister for welcoming the regulations. I think we are all agreed that the measure is necessary and that we need to get behind it. It is certainly incredibly popular with the public, who want to see us doing the right thing for the environment. That is certainly what we are doing on the Conservative Benches, and it is good to have the Labour party supporting us in that.

The hon. Member for Newport West asked a number of questions. If I do not cover them all, I will of course write to the Committee, as there was quite a list pouring out. She asked about the consultation process and mentioned 15 days. Actually, prior to those 15 days we consulted extensively on the issues. We did so in 2021 and throughout 2022 before announcing our intentions this January. We have worked really closely with stakeholders throughout to shape the policy, because we need it to work for businesses.

I thought the hon. Lady would mention the 15-day issue, but it applies only to this statutory instrument to implement the policy, not to the details of the policy, which were all thrashed out in the 12-week consultation. The requirements for the London Gazette consultation, including the minimum length of time, are all specified under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and are, therefore, deemed suitable for Parliament. DEFRA chose to go a bit further than required by the Act and consulted for longer and published the SI alongside the Government’s consultation response, to ensure that it reached as wide an audience as possible. I hope that the hon. Lady is satisfied with that.

The hon. Lady asked how engaged we have been with businesses. Obviously, that is really important. Our response to the consultation was published in January. As I have said, we have engaged extensively with businesses, trade groups and even individual organisations such as the NHS. We also published guidance on gov.uk back in May, giving industry ample time to prepare. When we first announced our intentions, I went out and did a whole lot of media. I seem to remember that we went to the Co-op and did a whole lot of items about single-use plastics, which got wide coverage and, indeed, wide support from the public.

The hon. Lady asked about the WTO. We did not expect to get comments back from it. Lots of its members have implemented measures on plastics, so it is something that it was expecting. I will not say that it was a formality as such, but it is something that we had to go through, as she will well know.

The hon. Lady also raised the devolved Administrations. Of course, this SI is for England only, but as ever we collaborate really closely with the devolved Administrations. We are doing so right now on our other, wider measures to reduce plastic packaging, particularly the extended producer responsibility regime. Just the other day, I chaired a meeting with all my counterparts in the devolveds. Officials are working incredibly closely. In devolved areas, other nations are perfectly able to act as they wish in their own circumstances. There was an exemption under the United Kingdom Internal Market Act for a number of single-use plastic items, including straws, stirrers, cotton buds, plates, cutlery, balloon sticks, and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drink containers. That was largely because Scotland brought in its ban in June and ours will come in October, so that seemed a perfectly sensible thing to do just for those few months. I hope that the hon. Lady agrees with that.

I think that that more or less answers the points that have been raised. I am very grateful to the shadow Minister for her support. I reiterate that we believe that these measures are a really important part of our much wider strategy to tackle plastic pollution, not least on the international stage, where we are heavily involved in the international plastics treaty, and that they are an important marker for us in all the other, wider things we are doing as a Government. I thank Members for listening so intently and hope that they are reassured that we are doing the right thing for the environment. I certainly believe that we are doing so and therefore recommend the draft regulations to the Committee.

Question put.

2.49 pm

Committee rose.