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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring that consumer information is provided to promote the sale of durable, repairable and recyclable textiles.

The Government committed in the Resources & Waste Strategy to support ecodesign standards for products and to improve labelling schemes, as well as to address challenges in the textiles sector.

We are seeking powers in the Environment Bill that will enable the Government to mandate the provision of relevant information to help consumers make more sustainable purchasing decisions. This information must be relevant to a product’s impact on the natural environment and can include information relating to a product’s durability, reparability and recyclability, as well as its recycled content.

The textiles sector remains a priority area for potential future regulations, including but not limited to making use of those powers.