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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2017 to Question 65236, what plans her department has to prevent the remaining 99.99 per cent to 95.9 per cent of microplastics from entering the marine environment.

We ran a consultation between 20 December 2016 and 28 February 2017 on proposals to ban microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products. The consultation also sought to gather evidence on the extent of the environmental impacts of microplastics from other sources. We are now reviewing the responses to the consultation and any new evidence will be used to inform future UK actions to protect the marine environment.