Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2017 to Question 67657, for what reasons his Department is not planning to conduct an assessment of the implications of microplastics entering the marine environment on human health.

The United Kingdom Government, from an environmental perspective, is conducting research on the capacity for microplastics to cause harm in the marine environment and implications for the food chain. No specific research in respect of the impact of microplastics on human health is currently being undertaken by Public Health England.