Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce (a) microbeads entering and (b) rubbish in marine environments.

George Eustice

The UK Marine Strategy Part Three, published in December 2015, sets out the actions we are taking to improve the marine environment. It includes measures that contribute to reducing sources of marine litter, including plastics. Given the trans-boundary nature of marine litter, we are working with other countries in the Oslo and Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic (OSPAR) to address marine litter.

On microbeads in particular, Defra is working with other OSPAR countries and industry to secure the voluntary phasing-out of microplastics in personal care products. Defra is also supporting other EU Member States in calling for the European Commission to come up with proposals to ban microbeads in cosmetics and detergents.