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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking towards securing a UNEA resolution for a treaty on plastic pollution; what timetable they are working to; and how they will monitor the effectiveness of any such treaty.

The UK is proud to have supported the proposal by Rwanda and Peru that led to the ambitious resolution on ending plastic pollution agreed at the continuation of the 5th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022.

As laid out in the adopted resolution, a series of Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) meetings will be held to negotiate the content of the treaty. The first meeting is due to take place in the second half of 2022 with the aim of concluding negotiations by the end of 2024.

An Open-Ended Working Group meeting is scheduled for the first half of 2022, where the INC’s programme of work will be discussed.

The introduction of any monitoring mechanisms, including on monitoring the effectiveness of the treaty, will be negotiated by the INC.

At UNEA 5, the UK announced it had joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution as a founding member to drive a comprehensive and effective new treaty.