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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help protect wildlife and nature reserves from littering in the context of summer tourism.

Defra published the Litter Strategy for England in April 2017, setting out our aim to deliver a substantial reduction in litter and littering within a generation. The Litter Strategy brings together communities, businesses, charities and schools to bring about real change by focusing on three key themes: education and awareness; improving enforcement; and better cleaning and access to bins.

In response to COVID-19, Defra developed a 'Respect the Outdoors' campaign to encourage people to follow the Countryside Code and to highlight the impacts of littering. We also supported, and provided funding for, Keep Britain Tidy's Love Parks campaign, which encouraged people to treat our parks with respect.

We have also consulted on introducing a deposit return scheme. Our current impact assessment assumes that the scheme can reduce drinks containers being littered by an estimated 85%.

Furthermore, the Chewing Gum Task Force, established by Defra, has recently launched a grant scheme to help local authorities clean gum off pavements in their local areas and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum being dropped in the first place. It is the first project of a five-year programme that will see chewing gum producers invest up to £10m to tackle gum staining.

Natural England supports the Countryside Code campaign through a range of communications channels including social media and engaging with commercial partners who help to promote the Code. In addition, Natural England also supports these efforts across its National Nature Reserves through on-site wardens and volunteers who engage with visitors as well as holding community litter pick days.