On 5 June, at the Volvo Ocean summit, I was proud to sign the UN environment clean seas plastics pledge on behalf of the Welsh Government. The introduction of this microbeads ban legislation supports this pledge and is part of a wider package of actions already under way by the Welsh Government, and through partnership working, to reduce levels of plastic pollution entering our seas and oceans.

Both David Melding and Simon Thomas were absolutely right to point out that, as we welcome this legislation, it is just one step on the road to phasing out single-use and unnecessary plastics. I think, Simon, you particularly touched on microbeads in other products and also microplastics. In terms of other products, we are looking at a UK level to inform our approach to reducing pollution from microbeads in other products and gathering that evidence on the environmental impacts to inform further action to reduce the use of products containing microbeads.

Microplastics is another issue that is there on the horizon that is getting quite a bit of attention and I've asked officials to do some work on that, with a view to advising me on what we could and should be doing on that issue. Like you said, this is just one step, one piece of a very large jigsaw that we need to put together to take the action that we need. We were talking about startling figures and during the Volvo Ocean Race, the figure I learnt from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation was that if we don't take action on plastics, there'll be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. That is a truly startling statistic.

So, as I said, we are committed to taking forward action on our route-map to tackle plastics. We're not only looking at actually increasing recycling and phasing out single-use plastics, but we're actually looking in terms of recycled content, the value of it, and the design of manufactured products within Wales, coupled with the work we're doing in terms of a tax on single-use plastic and the DRS scheme, which I hope to update Members on shortly in this place, and also the possibility for what we could take forward on a Wales-wide basis too. I've always said I'll give consideration to a tax, levy or charge on single-use beverage containers. So, it's one step in a whole suite of measures to tackle the scourge of unnecessary and single-use plastics. 

So, to conclude, Llywydd, I welcome the support of Assembly Members to move to approve these regulations. Diolch yn fawr.