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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce regular reporting on the proportion of peat being sold in compost and used as a growing medium in horticulture.

We are working with the industry to put in place a replacement for our previous monitoring of peat use in growing media, which last reported in 2016.

The 2016 report showed that peat use in 1) the amateur sector (2020 target) was down 21% in 2015 compared to 2011, and 2) the professional grower sector (2030 target) was down 26% since 2011. Nevertheless, whilst progress had been made in reducing peat use, it appears to be stalling.

We stated in the 25 Year Plan for the Environment that if by 2020 we have not seen sufficient movement to peat alternatives, we will look at introducing further measures. We have been discussing how we should judge what constitutes “sufficient movement” away from peat use and what potential further measures could look like. These discussions are ongoing.