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

To ask His Majesty's Government how the Circular Economy Taskforce will engage with ministers and the healthcare sector to coordinate work to develop a circular health economy.

This Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has convened the Circular Economy Taskforce to help us develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England, which will be supported by with a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions that the government and others will make on a sector-by-sector basis.

This is a cross-government agenda and together we are considering the evidence for interventions right across the economy. We are exploring the circularity impacts of a wide range of levers, including in the health sector, as we develop our strategy.

Furthermore, the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) Design for Life programme is dedicated to the delivery of a circular economy for medical devices, through greater reuse, remanufacture, and recycling. DHSC published the Design for Life Roadmap in October 2024, which sets out the plan to achieve this vision and transition away from all avoidable single-use medical technology products by 2045.