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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies on the planned ban of microbeads.

We are currently running a consultation on our proposals to ban microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products in preparation for the consultation which Defra carried out an assessment on the impacts of a ban. This concluded that a ban of this kind would help improve the state of the marine environment and address public concerns relating to consumer confidence in UK cosmetics. The impact on industry was considered to be low given that many companies had already committed to discontinuing their use.