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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of (a) monitoring and (b) mitigating the presence of microplastics within the UK.

No assessment has been made. We are commissioning a research project called the ‘Emissions of intentionally added microplastics’ which will investigate the risks of intentionally added microplastics. It will advise on the most effective measures to address risks and help identify wider evidence gaps that need to be addressed to support a more strategic approach to managing intentionally added microplastics.

The Government has, however, taken a targeted approach to tackling microplastic pollution. We’ve already banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products and we continue to tackle upstream sources of secondary microplastics that leak into the environment, by banning and restricting commonly littered plastic items – including single use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds and through our upcoming bans on single use plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers. We recently announced in the Plan for Water that we will change the law to ban the sale of wet wipes containing plastic subject to public consultation, which will be launched in Autumn 2023.

The UK Government is also proud to have supported the proposal by Rwanda and Peru that led to the ambitious resolution to start negotiating an international legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, agreed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022. The process to negotiate a new agreement is now underway, and the UK has taken an ambitious stance, including calling for specific provisions in the agreement to address microplastic pollution.