Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(): This statement is made in
accordance with section 10(11) of the United Kingdom Internal
Market Act 2020 (the UKIM Act). The United Kingdom Internal
Market Act 2020 (Exclusions from Market Access Principles:
Single-Use Plastics) Regulations 2022 create an exclusion from
the market access principles in Part 1 of the UKIM Act for
legislation so far as it prohibits or restricts the supply of
single use plastic straws, drink stirrers, stemmed cotton buds,
plates, cutlery, chopsticks, balloon sticks and expanded and
extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers, including cups.
This exclusion was requested by the Scottish Government through
the Resources and Waste Common Framework, in line with the
process for considering UKIM Act exclusions in Common Framework
areas1. Under the Act, the Secretary of State is
required to seek consent from the Scottish Ministers, the Welsh
Ministers and the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland.
If that consent is not given within one month, the Regulations
may be made without consent.
Welsh Ministers and Scottish Ministers have consented to the
making of these regulations and consent has been sought from the
Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland. As this
legislation is of a cross-cutting nature, the consent request
requires referral to the Northern Ireland Executive as per
Northern Ireland’s Ministerial Code. This has not been possible
due to the ongoing absence of a First and deputy First Minister
in Northern Ireland, meaning the Executive cannot meet. My
officials have however continued to engage at official level with
the relevant Northern Ireland departments in the development of
this legislation and there has been engagement with the Minister
for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, MLA and the Minister for the
Economy, who have raised no
objections to the approach.
In line with section 10(7) of the UKIM Act, I have considered the
importance of facilitating the access to the market within Great
Britain of qualifying Northern Ireland goods. The supply of the
items covered by this exclusion is banned in Scotland, and the UK
Government and the Welsh Government have consulted on banning the
supply of these items in England and in Wales in so far as it is
not already banned there. The relevant EU Directive (Article 5 of
the Single-Use Plastic Directive) under Annex II of the NI
Protocol, once implemented in Northern Ireland, will have
equivalent effect to the proposed and existing legislation in
Scotland, England and Wales. As such, I do not consider there is
a need to make additional or separate provision to maintain
access to the market within Great Britain for these single-use
plastic items.
I therefore intend to proceed with making the United Kingdom
Internal Market Act 2020 (Exclusions from Market Access
Principles: Single-Use Plastics) Regulations 2022. I welcome the
commitments and shared ambition across the UK to continue to work
together to reduce plastic waste and tackle plastic pollution
across the UK.
