Draft Environmental Protection (Wet Wipes Containing Plastic) (England) Regulations 2025
(1 day, 19 hours ago)
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The Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs (Dame Angela Eagle)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. The regulations were laid before the House on 16 September. I welcome the chance today to set out the action that this Government and the devolved Governments are taking to ban the supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic across the UK. I am clearly not my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice, the Minister who has had the most to do with taking this legislation through Parliament. She cannot be with us today, and I have stepped into her position to introduce the statutory instrument that she has done so much work to bring about.
The Government are committed to root and branch reform of the water system to secure better outcomes for customers, investors and the environment, and to restore trust and accountability. A key part of that is enabling pre-pipe drainage and wastewater solutions, including better management of our rainwater and preventing pollutants from entering the sewer network and our waterways. Banning wet wipes containing plastic is integral to that ambition.
Wet wipes containing plastic are a growing source of plastic pollution amd are often found in our natural environment, including in waterways and on beaches. They break down into smaller pieces when in the water environment, contributing to microplastic pollution, which may be harmful to human and animal health. Banning them will reduce plastic and microplastic pollution, as well as reduce the volume of microplastics entering wastewater treatment sites when wrongly flushed.
This action is part of a wider commitment to encourage more sustainable behaviours around the consumption of single-use plastic. Ultimately, we want to encourage a shift towards reusable and/or plastic-free alternatives. In a 2023 public consultation, 95% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the proposed ban on wet wipes containing plastic. The ban is part of the Government’s all-round approach to moving towards a circular economy for plastics—a future where we keep our resources in use for longer, waste is reduced to accelerate the path to net zero, and we see investment in critical infrastructure and green jobs, which will help our economy to prosper and nature to thrive. We intend to publish the first ever circular economic strategy for England in the coming months.
The UK is leading the way by banning the supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic, which is a huge step in the right direction. We encourage other nations to consider banning these products, but there may be legitimate reasons why some countries continue to allow the supply and sale of the products. We have been working closely across the UK to agree a joined-up approach to the proposed ban and a UK-wide Government response. We want to deliver a ban that is sensible and effective, while minimising the negative impacts it might have on business and individuals reliant on these products.
The statutory instrument provides for an 18-month transition period before coming into force. The ban will therefore come into force in spring 2027, which is intended to mitigate the economic impacts of the ban, including potential job losses, and to mitigate the risk of excess stocks of wet wipes containing plastic being sent to landfill or being incinerated. We acknowledge that, for some uses, plastic-free alternatives are neither suitable nor available. On that basis, we will provide a medical and a business-to-business exemption to the ban. Our policy on exemptions ensures that individuals and businesses with a genuine need for wet wipes containing plastic can access them until there is a viable alternative. We will periodically review the scope of the exemptions.
Trading standards or equivalent enforcement officers in local authorities will enforce the ban using a reactive intelligence-led model. The Government will soon publish guidance to make clear the scope and details of the regulations. That will assist businesses and regulators in understanding the changes brought in by this legislation to help ensure compliance.
I emphasise that a ban on the supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic is necessary to reduce plastic and microplastic pollution, particularly in our waters. I commend this statutory instrument to the Committee.
Dr Neil Hudson (Epping Forest) (Con)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Sir Desmond. I thank the Government for bringing these draft regulations to us today.
As members of the Committee will be aware, the Conservative Government set out their ambition to ban the most problematic plastic waste products in their 2018 resource and waste strategy for England. Action was taken to prohibit the supply of single-use plastic straws, plates and cutlery, plastic-stemmed cotton buds and drinks stirrers. In addition, that Government introduced a successful single-use carrier bag charge policy, which by 2024 had reduced the number of bags given out by the main supermarkets by over 98%.
The resource and waste strategy outlined that to ban products, it must be considered an appropriate action and there must be sustainable, plastic-free alternatives. It was under that premise that in April 2024, the Conservative Government announced their intention to ban wet wipes containing plastic, which were quite rightly identified as a significant contributor to plastic pollution in rivers and oceans, with harmful microplastics entering that environment. I note the Minister’s comments about the impact that that has on the environment and the animals and wildlife therein.
That announcement from the Conservatives was particularly welcome to me as someone who has long called for us to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution in our rivers and seas. In the last Parliament, I sat on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, which shone a spotlight on the scourge of plastic waste through its specific inquiry and report into the matter. It recommended, among other things, the banning of plastic waste exports.
I pay tribute to the Conservative Environment Network, of which I am a member, which has long called for action on plastic pollution in our waters and which was instrumental in helping to shift the dial and lead us to where we are today. With the timing of the election last year, the previous Government did not have the opportunity to lay these regulations. I am pleased that the new Government have brought them before us today. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Putney for her hard and concerted cross-party work in this area.
The regulations make sensible exemptions, including for medical and industrial uses, to ensure that where wet wipes containing plastic are necessary and there are no viable alternatives, they can still be supplied. In a 2022 article for the National Health Executive, Professor Jean-Yves Maillard, professor of pharmaceutical microbiology at Cardiff University, highlighted the medical reasons that plastic is still required in wet wipes. He said that if the plastic, which is loaded with detergents, cleaning agents and in some cases powerful disinfectants, is removed,
“you’re left with a less effective, less useful wet wipe”,
which has
“real-world consequences for patient care and patient safety in healthcare.”
The Government have noted that most manufacturers have already commenced the transition to producing plastic-free wipes. It is important that these regulations do not limit access to plastic wet wipes where they are still required. What assessment has been made of the effect of the regulations on the supply and cost of plastic wet wipes for medical or clinical environments and other settings where plastic wet wipes are still required due to there being no viable alternatives? We should still aim to become plastic-free, even in professional products, but we are not quite there yet. When do the Government anticipate that full transition will be possible? When will effectiveness in the medical, clinical and scientific environments no longer be affected?
I hope that the Minister can provide reassurance on how the enforcement powers will work during the transition period. Will she confirm that the enforcement powers will not be used disproportionately? Will she confirm that the regulations are not intended to prohibit or penalise members of the public who have an existing stock of wet wipes at home and want to use them up? Will the Minister publish a table of enforcement action by councils, to provide transparency on how councils are interpreting and enforcing the regulations?
Given that the regulations have attracted criticism from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, what steps have been taken to address that Committee’s concerns? Although it is right that action is taken to limit unnecessary sources of pollution, we must avoid unintended consequences. I hope the Minister can provide clarification and reassurance.
Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)
I am delighted to speak in this Committee, having campaigned for this legislation for four years. In the UK, over 11 billion wet wipes are used annually—that is probably a conservative estimate; actually, far more are used—and wet wipes cause 93% of sewer blockages and fatbergs. Anyone who has seen a fatberg will not forget it, but water companies have to see them a lot because they are the main blockages in our pipes. They damage pipes and our water infrastructure, and they add huge sums to our water bills because of the cost of clearing them up. Water companies spend approximately £100 million a year clearing fatbergs, and that goes on to our bills. Anything we can do to reduce the problem will be a good thing for our bills, and for our constituents.
As my hon. Friend the Minister and the shadow Minister said, huge damage is also caused to the environment and to marine life. The microplastics from wet wipes get into the systems of marine life and cause damage, especially to fertility and to feeding.
Recently, a wet wipe island formed in the River Thames in the constituency of the hon. Member for Richmond Park. The island changed the course of the River Thames. It was the size of two tennis courts and at least a metre deep, and if you stood on it, you could feel its jelly-like texture. I am grateful to the Port of London Authority and to Thames21 volunteers for revealing the problem, and to the Port of London Authority for mapping the island with sonar from boats so that it could see the size of the island and see that it was growing. The island was removed this summer because the opening of Tideway has dramatically reduced the amount of wet wipes put out into the River Thames, and because this legislation was promised.
If there are fewer wet wipes with plastic in, fewer will stay forever—it is not known how long they will take to break down—in the banks of the River Thames. There is therefore a reason to clear the wet wipe island and ensure it is not refilled. That is good news. I also thank the Marine Conservation Society and Surfers Against Sewage. This campaign has been a team effort and, as the shadow Minister said, a cross-party effort.
For years, the Conservative Government promised to introduce this legislation, but they were not getting on with it, so in 2021 I introduced my private Member’s Bill. I did so again in 2022 and introduced a ten-minute rule Bill in 2022. In the meantime, I worked with water companies across the UK so that the campaigning on this issue would be less confusing. It was “fine to flush” in some areas and there were different campaigns by different water companies. Now there is a unified effort by all the water companies together to have the same public messaging. The threat of the ban encouraged Tesco and Boots to go plastic-free for all the wipes sold in their stores for any use—baby wipes, cosmetic wipes, cleaning wipes and so on. There really should not be all those wipes but those in Tesco and Boots have been guaranteed plastic-free since 2023.
The main message must be: do not flush any wipes. No wipes are fine to flush. Even the ones that can be broken down join with fat and cause blockages, so they should not be flushed. As has been mentioned, the issue is similar to the plastic bag ban and the change brought about by Government regulation as well as behavioural change by the public. There is a clear message that we should all send.
It is great that Wales is the first country in the world to legislate on this issue—the legislation is coming in very soon. Scotland has plans to bring this measure in soon, and in November 2024 the Northern Ireland Executive notified the World Trade Organisation of their intent to legislate. We look forward to the Northern Ireland Executive introducing their regulations as soon as possible, so that the whole of the United Kingdom is lined up on this issue.
The industry has said that it is great to have 18 months, but I know from talking to the industry that it will take less than 18 months because there are alternatives that can be brought in at the same cost. That will make a huge difference to the amount of plastic in our rivers and waterways. Plastic comes from fossil fuels and is very hard to get rid of at the end of its life. Extended producer responsibility remains an issue. The wet wipe companies are not paying for the clean-up, which is paid for by us through our water bills. That is a problem. We have to keep working on labelling, as well as single-use plastic. However, the regulations are a huge step in the right direction. I am enormously grateful to the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice, for the amount of work that she has done on this. She came into office determined to get this measure through, and she has. She deserves huge credit for that.
I am very excited to be here today and working with so many people across the House and across the country on a small statutory instrument about a small item, a wet wipe, that will make a huge difference to our water bills and the environment. I am delighted that we have these regulations. I look forward to working with all the Members here and across the House to continue our work towards the circular economy.
Sir Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)
I rise as Chair of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. I am pleased to report that this statutory instrument passed our scrutiny. We checked the legal drafting and whether the instrument is intra vires and going through the proper legislative procedure. We deal with 1,200 or 1,500 instruments a year, but this one passed with flying colours.
Measures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs do not always pass with flying colours. We produced a report last month showing DEFRA had produced 69 such regulations; 9% required further explanation, and three of them—4%—required us to request changes in drafting, which shows that this very obscure and unsung Committee does very important work to make sure that regulations such as these are properly elucidated.
I support the hon. Member for Putney and her injunction that people should stop flushing wet wipes down toilets. Unfortunately, this statutory instrument does not address that. I think the Minister could have taken the opportunity to impress upon the public that they must stop flushing wet wipes down into the sewage system. They cause incredible blockages, which cost millions of pounds to clear, put our water bills up, and pollute the environment. Even if there are no plastics in them, they will continue to cause that nuisance. We must not let it get into the consumer’s mind, “Oh, these are plastic-free, so I can flush them down the loo.” I put it to the Minister that that is a great danger.
Dame Angela Eagle
The hon. Gentleman has anticipated some of what I was going to say in my winding-up remarks—but he is right.
Sir Bernard Jenkin
I am most grateful to the hon. Lady. They say that in Parliament you should never ask a question to which you do not know the answer, but I am going to ask one. I notice that the EU is also moving towards this kind of ban, although I do not know whether it is the same. In Wales, the Welsh Labour Government have already introduced a ban. Would we have been allowed to do this without the EU’s permission? Would it have been regarded as a restriction on the free movement of wet wipes if we had introduced it while we were still in the EU? I hope that moving forward with this measure, for which I commend this Government and the previous Government, in this country will encourage the rest of the EU to follow suit. I do not suppose that this falls under the definition of “reset” or “alignment” or anything complicated like that, but could the Minister explain whether we could have done this if we were still in the EU?
Tristan Osborne (Chatham and Aylesford) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I thank the Minister for stepping in and for reviewing the outstanding contributions of previous Environment Ministers. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice for her work, and my hon. Friend the Member for Putney for all her work on the issue over many years.
As chair of the all-party parliamentary group for sustainable resources, and as chair for Policy Connect on the circular economy task group, let me say that the draft regulations are very welcome; we look forward to further developments in other product areas as the circular economy task group reports. This measure follows the Welsh legislation and the Welsh Government’s move to ban these products, with a ban hopefully to come shortly in Northern Ireland and Scotland. As the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex said, the European Union is watching us very closely, as are other countries, to see how it will be implemented.
From the Conservative Environment Network to the Socialist Environment and Resources Association and Liberal Democrat environmental groups, there is genuine consensus that these are products that have reached the end of their lifecycle. We know that bioaccumulation is occurring in mammalian species. Autopsies of porpoises and other animals show an extremely high level of bioaccumulation, which then passes into the food chain and into human beings. We know that that has significant impacts in relation to cancer and other disorders. Further research is ongoing into plastics and their consequences in human physiology.
The 18-month transition period will allow companies to clear stock—I think that that is the ambition—and allow new products to be developed. As has been mentioned, many companies have already made the step towards being plastic-free. A secondary benefit will be a reduction in sewer blockages. However, it must be noted that any transition product might still have some impact, so that cannot be the primary reason for implementation. There has been some noted scientific research showing that it would be an improvement, because a more biodegradable product, such as a cellulose-based product, will disintegrate much more quickly than a plastic product. I am hopeful that our society can innovate to create products that disintegrate faster.
The Opposition spokesman, the hon. Member for Epping Forest, talked about the NHS. The impact assessment states that the Government have already spoken to Kimberly-Clark, which has been part of the process from the start, and will continue to work closely with it. Although the hon. Member is absolutely right to raise those concerns, we are already speaking to industry professionals, and I am confident that we can come to a resolution.
All that remains is for me to thank the Minister and all colleagues for their contributions this afternoon. I look forward to supporting the legislation.
Sarah Olney (Richmond Park) (LD)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. Thank you for allowing me to respond on behalf of the Liberal Democrats. We have long been calling for a ban on supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic, and we are extremely pleased to see this legislation introduced. We have always been incredibly concerned about the environmental harm caused by single-use wet wipes, which block our sewage network and pollute our waterways with microplastics.
I add my voice to the tributes to my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Putney, for her incredibly hard work over the past four years. She highlighted a particular issue in my constituency: the wet wipe island next to Hammersmith bridge. An estimated 5 million wet wipes have built up on the riverbed; I pay tribute to the selfless volunteers from my constituency who have dedicated their time to helping to clear that appalling build-up, and to the Port of London authority for taking action to remove 180 tonnes of congealed wet wipes. As the hon. Lady mentioned, the build-up changed the course of the River Thames and potentially harmed aquatic wildlife and ecology in the area.
The hon. Lady asked whether anyone had seen a fatberg. One of the UK’s largest fatbergs was excavated from under Kingston hill in my constituency about 10 years ago, so yes, I have seen one up close. I put it on record, by the way, that despite having wet wipe island and the UK’s largest fatberg, my constituency is still one of the most beautiful in London—indeed, in the country—and will remain so, thanks to this statutory instrument.
I am extremely pleased to support the draft regulations, but I call on the Government to do more to tackle microplastic pollution in our waterways and improve labelling to ensure that single-use wet wipes are clearly marked “Do not flush”, as so many hon. Members this evening have highlighted.
Dame Angela Eagle
We have had a small but perfectly formed debate on a measure that has gathered cross-party agreement, partly because of the power of the argument about the damage that microplastics do. I particularly compliment my hon. Friend the Member for Putney on her long-standing and very powerful advocacy in this area: she should be very proud of the effect that her campaigning has had.
The hon. Member for Richmond Park has sold the beauty of her constituency in a way that I have never quite managed. I look forward to a time when she can talk about the unalloyed pleasures of the nature and beauty of her constituency without having to get us all involved in contemplating 180 tonnes of fatberg caused by 5 million wet wipes, but I also observe that 11 million wet wipes, or possibly more, are used a year. That is two fatbergs a year, created by the kind of waste that we are talking about banning.
I acknowledge that, as the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex pointed out, banning wet wipes that contain plastic will not stop the formation of fatbergs in our sewer system, because any wet wipe can contribute to that, as indeed can pouring oil down the sewer system. We therefore have much more work to do, not least on labelling and the “Do not flush” approach to the wet wipes that will remain even after the ban is brought into force. I compliment the hon. Gentleman for pointing out to me some of the issues with the Department, which I joined not so long ago; I will take those back so that future statutory instruments can get through his Committee unscathed. I note the points that he made about those that have not quite reached the standard of technical excellence of this one.
The hon. Gentleman asked whether we would have been able to introduce this statutory instrument if we had been in the EU. My information is that we would. The EU is not actually banning wet wipes at the moment; it is doing plastic versus non-plastic labelling. Perhaps the EU is beginning to go down the path that we have pioneered.
Sir Bernard Jenkin
She always gets excited when I mention the European Union.
Dame Angela Eagle
Of course, and that is why I will give way to my hon. Friend. I think that the EU is perhaps beginning some tentative steps along the same pathway that, thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Putney, we are pioneering.
Ms Creasy
I know that the Minister, like me, will want to reassure the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex, who has previously expressed grave concern that somehow working with our European counterparts would not help us to abolish taxes on tampons, for example. Let me reassure him that the single-use plastics directive, which was made in 2019—after we voted to leave the European Union, admittedly, but before we left—would facilitate this work. Indeed, the Netherlands and Spain are already progressing their own bans. The European Union is—as it always was—simply a springboard to making decisions at a local level. We are ahead of the curve here in the United Kingdom, but working with the European Union would not prevent us from doing this work. I am sure that that will entirely reassure the hon. Member.
Dame Angela Eagle
I am in awe of my hon. Friend’s detailed knowledge of EU directives that were passed after we left. I am sure that she remains in dynamic alignment with what is going on in Europe.
I want to spend a little time answering the questions of the hon. Member for Epping Forest. Enforcement will be proportionate. The 18-month transition period is pretty generous, as far as transition periods go. We are certainly hoping that with the signals that have been given and with the ban coming in, the industry will be able to adjust. We also encourage it to innovate so that we can get plastic out of the remaining wet wipes that, for the time being, the exemptions in the statutory instrument allow. It is a pragmatic statutory instrument, as the hon. Gentleman says.
The hon. Gentleman asked how enforcement would work. It will be on sellers and suppliers, not on individuals. There will certainly be no one knocking on doors and checking people’s pantries to see whether they have an old supply of wet wipes with plastic in. At least, that is not the Government’s intention; if anyone were on the receiving end of that treatment, it would certainly be an overreach not allowed under this statutory instrument. With all those qualifications, I hope that the Committee will agree to the draft regulations.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That the Committee has considered the draft Environmental Protection (Wet Wipes Containing Plastic) (England) Regulations 2025.