Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to help reduce and discourage littering on roads and major highways.

In the 2017 Litter Strategy, the Government set out a number of commitments to tackle roadside litter through education, improved infrastructure and enforcement.

We have already given councils new powers to hold the keeper of a vehicle responsible for litter thrown from it by issuing a civil penalty, carried out a pilot survey of roadside cleanliness on those parts of the Strategic Road Network (SRN) which are litter-picked by local authorities and engaged over 100 of those authorities in research to explore associated issues, challenges and good practice.

We expect to publish a report on our findings later this year. This work is ongoing and will also support future updates to the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse.

On other parts of the SRN the responsibility for cleansing lies with Highways England, who have committed to their vision of a network predominantly free from litter, without compromising safety and delivered affordably, in their own Litter Strategy, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-england-litter-strategy

We will continue to promote anti-littering messages where possible, as we have done recently via social media and dedicated campaigns such as ‘Respect the Outdoors’.

On behalf of Defra and MHCLG, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) have recently published guidance for local authorities and Business Improvement Districts in England on the provision of litter bins, which includes a section on ‘Highways, laybys and rest stops’. We are also making £2 million available in the form of grants to local authorities to improve the provision of litter bins.

The Right Bin in the Right Place guidance is available at https://wrap.org.uk/content/binfrastructure-right-bin-right-place .