The Government has already taken significant steps to tackle plastic pollution (e.g. microplastics), including restricting the supply of several single-use plastics through introducing a plastic packaging tax from April 2022; restricting the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds; and preventing billions of plastic microbeads from entering the ocean each year by introducing a ban on microbeads in rinse off personal care products.

The majority of microfibres are removed through water treatment and analysis of the evidence available to date does not show that there is a sufficient benefit to the environment that can justify legislation to mandate the microfibre filters in new washing machines with prices ranging from £30 to £122 per machine, dependent on manufacturer and whether the filters are disposable or reusable. Defra’s Plan for Water therefore includes a commitment for industry to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters on washing machines and encourage their effective use. We have met industry colleagues and posed this challenge and we look forward to any proposals they are able to share when they are able to do so.

The Government has already taken significant steps to tackle plastic pollution (e.g. microplastics), including restricting the supply of several single-use plastics through introducing a plastic packaging tax from April 2022; restricting the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds; and preventing billions of plastic microbeads from entering the ocean each year by introducing a ban on microbeads in rinse off personal care products.

The majority of microfibres are removed through water treatment and analysis of the evidence available to date does not show that there is a sufficient benefit to the environment that can justify legislation to mandate the microfibre filters in new washing machines with prices ranging from £30 to £122 per machine, dependent on manufacturer and whether the filters are disposable or reusable. Defra’s Plan for Water therefore includes a commitment for industry to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters on washing machines and encourage their effective use. We have met industry colleagues and posed this challenge and we look forward to any proposals they are able to share when they are able to do so.

The Government has already taken significant steps to tackle plastic pollution (e.g. microplastics), including restricting the supply of several single-use plastics through introducing a plastic packaging tax from April 2022; restricting the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds; and preventing billions of plastic microbeads from entering the ocean each year by introducing a ban on microbeads in rinse off personal care products.

The majority of microfibres are removed through water treatment and analysis of the evidence available to date does not show that there is a sufficient benefit to the environment that can justify legislation to mandate the microfibre filters in new washing machines with prices ranging from £30 to £122 per machine, dependent on manufacturer and whether the filters are disposable or reusable. Defra’s Plan for Water therefore includes a commitment for industry to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters on washing machines and encourage their effective use. We have met industry colleagues and posed this challenge and we look forward to any proposals they are able to share when they are able to do so.

The Government has already taken significant steps to tackle plastic pollution (e.g. microplastics), including restricting the supply of several single-use plastics through introducing a plastic packaging tax from April 2022; restricting the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds; and preventing billions of plastic microbeads from entering the ocean each year by introducing a ban on microbeads in rinse off personal care products.

The majority of microfibres are removed through water treatment and analysis of the evidence available to date does not show that there is a sufficient benefit to the environment that can justify legislation to mandate the microfibre filters in new washing machines with prices ranging from £30 to £122 per machine, dependent on manufacturer and whether the filters are disposable or reusable. Defra’s Plan for Water therefore includes a commitment for industry to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters on washing machines and encourage their effective use. We have met industry colleagues and posed this challenge and we look forward to any proposals they are able to share when they are able to do so.

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

The UK Government has taken significant steps to tackle plastic pollution (eg. microplastics), including restricting the supply of several single-use plastics through introducing a plastic packaging tax from April 2022; restricting the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds; and preventing billions of plastic micro-beads from entering the ocean each year by introducing a ban on microbeads in rinse off personal care products.

Defra have been working closely with industry to understand the costs of installing microfibre filters on washing machines with prices ranging from £30 to £122 per machine dependant on manufacturer and whether the filters are disposable or re-useable. Defra’s Plan for Water includes a commitment for industry to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters on washing machines and encourage their effective use.

The UK Government has taken significant steps to tackle plastic pollution (eg. microplastics), including restricting the supply of several single-use plastics through introducing a plastic packaging tax from April 2022; restricting the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds; and preventing billions of plastic micro-beads from entering the ocean each year by introducing a ban on microbeads in rinse off personal care products.

Defra have been working closely with industry to understand the costs of installing microfibre filters on washing machines with prices ranging from £30 to £122 per machine dependant on manufacturer and whether the filters are disposable or re-useable. Defra’s Plan for Water includes a commitment for industry to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters on washing machines and encourage their effective use.

The Government is committed to safeguarding the natural environment from harms. We have been collaborating with water companies on the investigation of microplastics in wastewater treatment through the National Chemical Investigations Programme.

The Environment Agency have published their strategy for safe and sustainable sludge use. This strategy explores options for modernising and harmonising the regulatory framework with the aim of ensuring the management and use of sludge supports healthy and productive land and soil. The Government is currently examining the strategy’s impact on our environmental outcomes and water and farming industries.

Defra intends to publish a report that it commissioned on improving the sampling and analytical protocols to determine the quantities, loads and types of microplastics in surface waters and sediments, later this year. Following this, working with the Environment Agency, Defra will consider the approaches to sampling surface waters and sediments to develop provisional standard operating procedure guidelines that will be used to improve sampling, processing and analysing of microplastics in river waters and sediments.

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.

A series of Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meetings are now underway to negotiate the content of the treaty, with good progress being made. The second of five planned INC meetings is taking place 29 May – 2 June in Paris, with the aim of concluding negotiations by the end of 2024.

The UK’s objectives are to agree an ambitious and comprehensive treaty that addresses the whole lifecycle of plastics, from the production and design of plastics to their consumption and disposal. Furthermore, the UK supports a treaty that addresses the environmental and health impacts of plastic pollution.

The UK supports a combination of internationally legally binding obligations and national measures across the whole lifecycle of plastic to ensure that the treaty can adequately address the transboundary nature of plastic pollution.

The UK is also a founding member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a group of over 50 countries calling for a headline target under the treaty to stop plastic from flowing into the environment by 2040.

On 19^th December the Government laid The Environmental Targets (Water) (England) Regulations 2022 Statutory instrument. This introduced legally-binding targets to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment loads from agriculture by 40% by 2038 against a 2018 baseline, and to reduce phosphorus loads from wastewater by 80% by 2038 against a 2020 baseline.

Environmental land management is the foundation of our new approach. Our recently announced Countryside Stewardship Plus will target actions and payments to maximise delivery against priority environmental outcomes, such as net zero. Landscape Recovery, which will initially focus on biodiversity, water quality and net zero, is for landowners and managers who want to take a more large-scale, long-term approach. We published further information on the growth and rollout of our environmental land management schemes on 26 January, which contains the full range of actions, including those that support net zero.

Together with environmental land management schemes, we have the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, which supports farmers to achieve our net zero goals by: incentivising the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock through tackling diseases and improving productivity, supporting the Net Zero Strategy and the 25 Year Environment Plan.

Other farming schemes which support achieving net zero include the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme, which provides funding for farmers and other land managers to work in partnership with National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty bodies to deliver projects for climate, nature, people and place.
The Government anticipates our environmental land management scheme, the Farming Innovation Fund and other farming offers will reduce agricultural emissions by up to 6 MtCO2e per annum in Carbon Budget 6 in England.

Defra and its agencies, including the Environment Agency, have not yet considered the report in full detail but will do so in due course. We will consider the recommendations in conjunction with officials in the Department for Health and Social Care. Defra has already noted that some of the suggested interventions in the Lancet paper may be relevant to veterinary medicines. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate within Defra is actively considering issues around pharmaceuticals in the environment, and conducts environmental risk assessments for all new veterinary medicines.

My Lords, I declare my farming interests as set out in the register. The Government are committed to protecting our water bodies from pollution. In December we announced our ambitious suite of legally binding Environment Act targets, including four targets to address pressures on the water environment. To tackle agricultural pollution, in November we published a grant scheme to improve slurry storage on farms, alongside almost doubling the budget for our catchment-sensitive farming partnership. In August 2022, we also published our £56 billion plan to reduce sewage discharges.

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect rivers and beaches from pollution.

I thank the Minister for that Answer, but in the light of increasing public alarm, Thames Water now provides live information on pollution caused by combined sewage overflow spills. When will the Government mandate all water companies to provide their customers with this information?

My Lords, I refer to my interest as listed in the register. Does my noble friend agree that sustainable drainage systems have a vital role to play in preventing sewage entering these surface water overflows and combined sewers? Will he therefore bring forward the deadline to this year to ensure that Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, on obligatory, mandatory sustainable sewage drains, is put in place as it has been in Wales?

My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is shameful and indeed embarrassing that a British windsurfer, Sarah Jackson, has had to leave Britain because she cannot train in British waters due to the amount of sewage pollution in so many of our coastal areas? She has had to go to Spain in order to train.