To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to support local community organisations co-ordinating beach cleans.

My Department is committed to providing support to local communities to address the problem of beach litter. Since 2007/8 over £3 million has been awarded to Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful (KNIB) which helps address the problem of marine and terrestrial litter through measures such as the Marine Litter Survey. For instance in 2019, this support resulted in the removal of 540 bags of litter from the 11 reference beaches. Through my Department’s support, KNIB also leads on initiatives, such as the Single Use Plastic Project and the Eco-schools programme, to tackle the source of marine litter.

DAERA is one of the main funders of the Live Here Love Here campaign which is also delivered by KNIB. The campaign promotes community spirit and civic pride through people working together improving local environmental quality.

The Live Here Love Here campaign has a number of strands: a small grants scheme, which periodically provides grants to community groups; the Clean Coasts strand, which includes dedicated action promoting clean-up events and other activities on beaches and inland waterways; and Adopt a Spot initiative, which enables volunteers across Northern Ireland to adopt an area and look after it. The Live Here Love Here website (https://www.liveherelovehere.org/cgi-bin/generic?instanceID=56 ) also provides information such as local council contacts for the removal of litter.