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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) prevent, (2) reduce, and (3) eliminate, plastic pollution.

The Government has taken an ambitious approach to tackling plastic pollution. We have already banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products, as well as banning and restricting commonly littered plastic items – including our upcoming restrictions on single use plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers from October this year. Our single use carrier bag charge has reduced the use of single use carrier bags by 98% in the main retailers and in the Plan for Water, we recently announced that we will change the law to ban the sale of wet wipes containing plastic subject to public consultation, which will be launched in Autumn 2023.

The UK Government is also proud to have supported the proposal by Rwanda and Peru that led to the ambitious resolution to start negotiating an international legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, agreed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022. The UK is proud to be a founding member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a coalition of like-minded Governments that are committed to achieving an ambitious international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. The High Ambition Coalition has agreed a common ambition to end plastic pollution by 2040, underpinned by strategic goals and deliverables.