Found: Alcohol‐Free" in the Food Labelling Regulations   1996https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/585460 23 Ban

Found: Authors to speak in the Parliamentary Debates https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/254183 1385 Ban

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of restricting the use of (a) astro turf and (b) other plastic-based artificial grass products.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

The Government has not assessed the potential merits of restricting the use of astro turf or other plastic-based artificial grass products. However, we do recognise that these products, in themselves, have no value for wildlife. Their installation can have negative impacts on soil health, biodiversity and drainage for flood prevention or alleviation if installed in place of natural earth or more positive measures such as planting flowers or trees or providing natural water features.

Improving biodiversity is a key objective for the Government. We prefer to help people and companies make the right choice, rather than banning or taxing items outright. We are seeing more organisations, including the Royal Horticultural Society, helping to communicate the risks and issues surrounding the use of artificial grass in place of natural landscaping. While we have no current plans to ban the sale of artificial grass, in our recent call for evidence on commonly littered and problematic plastic items, we asked the public if there were any further plastic items we should consider for future policy action. We will review the feedback from the call for evidence and publish a response in due course.

In the 25 Year Environment Plan, we committed to introduce stronger new standards for green infrastructure and to support local authorities to assess provision. This new Green Infrastructure Framework will be launched by Natural England in December 2022. This will show what good green infrastructure looks like and help local authorities, developers and communities to improve provision in their area.

The Environment Act 2021 contains an ambitious package of reforms to restore and enhance nature and green spaces. This includes a new mandatory requirement for biodiversity net gain in the planning system, to ensure that new developments enhance biodiversity. In future, developments which involve the laying of artificial grass at the expense of natural landscaping, and are above a de minimis threshold, will be required to enhance biodiversity in other ways, through the biodiversity net gain requirement. This will incentivise more nature positive development.