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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to include the commitment to reduce plastic waste exports in his negotiating priorities for the Global Plastics Treaty.

The UK is a member of the High ambition coalition to end plastic pollution and has taken an ambitious stance in negotiations, supporting a treaty that will address the full life cycle of plastic including restraining and reducing the production and consumption of plastic to sustainable levels, addressing plastic design and encouraging more recycling and re-use of plastic. Controls on plastic waste exports are already established under the Basel Convention. The UK is an active Party to the Basel Convention and the UK supported the tightening of controls on plastic waste exports adopted by parties in 2019.