Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that procurement processes reduce the use of single-use plastics.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has stated that the commitment in the 25 Year Environment Plan to remove all Consumer Single-Use Plastics (CSUP) from the central government estate offices will be delivered by 2020, with the option for any department to do so earlier if desired.

In advance of this ban on CSUP, Cabinet Office and Crown Commercial Service (CCS) have developed an elimination scheme to be implemented through the facilities management (FM) suppliers on the CCS FM framework. It has established steps that can be taken to remove CSUP from new and existing contracts with departments at neutral cost, in support of this commitment.

The elimination scheme took effect from 1 August 2018, enabling departments and supply chains (including those related to waste management) to phase in alternatives to CSUP in time for the ban coming into force. Government’s FM suppliers report that these steps are helping lead many of their private sector clients to adopt similar plastics elimination measures.