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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with her international counterparts on the dumping of plastics in oceans.

The UK, together with all other OSPAR Contracting Parties, recently agreed a Marine Litter Action Plan for the Northeast Atlantic that addresses litter from sources on land and sea. The UK is a party to the London Protocol, which would not permit ‘dumping’ of plastics in the ocean. My colleague, the Secretary of State for Transport, is responsible for shipping and the UK is party to the International Marine Organisation’s International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). Under this Convention the discharge of plastics from ships is prohibited.