Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterparts overseas on the dumping of plastics in the world's oceans.

The Secretary of State for Transport, my Rt Hon friend the member for Derbyshire Dales has responsibility for shipping and the UK's obligations under the International Marine Organisation’s International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), under which the discharge of plastics from ships is prohibited. The UK is also a party to the London Protocol, which would not permit ‘dumping’ of plastics in the ocean.