I almost answered that question myself there. These are the eggs laid by birds, which demonstrates that we in Wales have the highest level of microplastics in the eggs themselves—we are talking about very, very small microplastics here, but these are appearing in the eggs, and it’s the highest level in western Europe. This just shows that this is permeating through our water systems and our food chain, and it’s having an impact. Every time these microplastics travel, they can carry pollution, disease and germs, they can carry all sorts of other things with them, which can then be found in people and in wildlife too.

I understand that these regulations relate to microbeads—something that we specifically place in products—and much of the research talks about microplastics emerging from plastic that breaks down over a period of time and becomes microplastic, but it is true to say that we have to tackle in every way possible this unnecessary plastic. That’s the important point: it is unnecessary plastic. You can keep yourself clean without plastic. I think that’s a very strong message conveyed in passing these regulations this afternoon.