Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2018 to Question 155717 on plastics: marine environment, how much Official Development Assistance funding has been allocated to the Commonwealth Marine Plastics Research and Innovation Framework; and what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that framework benefits people (a) living in poverty affected by mismanaged waste and (b) working in the informal waste management sector in developing countries.

The exact mix of the UK’s contribution to the Framework will be agreed in the autumn when large research programmes bids, including an Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme, are complete. The Framework will strengthen capacity to prevent plastics from becoming waste and getting into the oceans. Interdisciplinary research and innovation will develop social, economic and environmental solutions to waste management challenges at local, national and Commonwealth scales.