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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of plastic pollution on beaches in (a) Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire constituency and (b) other areas.

The UK Government funds the Marine Conservation Society to record litter from sections of our coast which helps us monitor the levels and trends of plastic pollution. The monitoring is undertaken in accordance with regionally-agreed protocols, and annual reports are published online: Annual beach litter reports (2023) - ME4168.

Over the past six years, the total median litter count on UK beaches reveals a statistically significant downward trend, decreasing by 18.2 items/100m per year. Significant downward trends continue to be observed in several individual litter items, including those targeted by recent bans and consultations. Single-use plastics are significantly decreasing by 5.8 items/100m per year.

The Department’s recently published Post Implementation Review (PIR) of the 2020 single use plastic bans and restrictions found evidence of reduced plastic litter on UK beaches, with plastic-stemmed cotton buds and straws showing significant declines. Cotton buds have dropped out of the UK’s top 10 most littered items in 2021 and reached their lowest levels in the Great British Beach Clean’s 28-year history.