Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of commissioning research into the impacts of plastic on human health.

No specific assessment has been made. The Department has commissioned research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) on microplastic toxicity in humans through its Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health with Imperial College London and the UK Health Security Agency. This will be reported in peer reviewed academic journals in due course.