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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to assess the potential impact of (a) microplastics and (b) PFAS contaminants in agriculture soil on human and wildlife health.

The Environment Agency (EA) keeps a close observation of emerging evidence of the risks microplastics and PFAS may pose.

The EA is working with Defra and collaborating with the water industry on a suite of microplastic and sludge investigations. One water industry investigation through the Chemicals Investigation Programme is currently looking at the movement of microplastics and chemicals from biosolids spread on land to soils.