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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to meet Target 7 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework on working towards eliminating plastic pollution.

The UK is a leading voice in tackling plastic pollution and, as a founding member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, we are calling for an ambitious target to end plastic pollution under a new legally binding treaty.

We have already banned or restricted a number of problematic plastic items, including single-use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds, as well as microbeads in rinse-off personal care products. We will also ban the supply of single-use plastic plates, bowls, and trays to the end-user and ban the supply of single-use plastic cutlery and single-use plastic balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers, from October 2023.

Through the Environment Act, the Government is bringing in a wide range of reforms, including a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers, Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and consistent recycling collections for every household and business in England.