To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to ban single-use plastic carrier bags.

My Department continues to tackle plastic waste with one of our major successes being the introduction of the Carrier Bag Levy in 2013 which has already removed over 1.7 billion bags from circulation across Northern Ireland. Our Carrier Bag Levy is the most extensive of its kind across the UK.

The most recent published annual validated statistics for 2020-2021 inform that bag usage continues to fall in our jurisdiction with 56.2 million carrier bags dispensed which represents a 24.3 million reduction (30.2%) from the 80.5 million dispensed the previous year.

While the downward trend in bag usage has been encouraging so as to further address the unnecessary purchase of bags and to encourage reuse, on 01 April 2022 I introduced an increase in the levy from 5 pence to 25 pence on ALL carrier bags priced at £5 or less.

As part of the commitment laid out by the Executive in the New Decade, New Approach document, my Department is leading on work to bring forward a plan to tackle and eliminate plastic pollution in Northern Ireland. My Department has recently removed all unnecessary single-use plastic from the Government estate within the target date of October 2021. The Plastic Reduction Action Plan Annual Report was published on the DAERA website on 24 March 2022.

DAERA is also a signatory to the UK Plastics Pact which enables us to work closely with industry partners to focus on issues around eliminating problematic and unnecessary plastic packaging.

In addition to this, upcoming legislation aimed at tackling some of our most problematic plastics will provide quantitative data to illustrate reductions in plastic pollution.

My Department will continue to monitor carrier bag usage, but at this time does not have plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ban single-use plastic carrier bags. It is anticipated that this recent increase in the levy will further reduce the overall number of bags being dispensed, particularly single-use plastic bags. It will also reduce the large volumes of heavy duty bags in circulation, many of which were priced at 20 pence or more and were excluded from the levy prior to 01 April 2022.