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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the amount of plastic entering (a) water courses and (b) the sea.

The UK is proud to have supported the proposal by Rwanda and Peru that led to the ambitious resolution to start negotiating a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution being agreed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022. The UK is a founding member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a coalition of like-minded Governments that are committed to a common ambition to end plastic pollution by 2040, underpinned by strategic goals and deliverables.

To do this, we will introduce additional single-use plastic item bans, extended producer responsibility, and deposit return schemes for plastic packaging and improve consistency in recycling. Through the UK’s Blue Planet Fund, we are also working bilaterally with partner countries to strengthen policies and regulations needed to eradicate plastic pollution and mismanaged waste.