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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of marine plastic pollution.

The Government has not made an estimate of the costs to the public purse of marine plastic pollution, but last week scientists from Plymouth Marine Laboratory, the Arctic University of Norway, the University of Stirling and the University of Surrey estimated an annual loss of between $500 billion and $2.5 trillion in the value of benefits derived from marine ecosystem services globally. This is a first step in understanding the true cost of marine plastic pollution, and we are developing the evidence base as part of our wider developments in marine natural capital evidence.