Thank you for the question. In terms of the issues around the criminal offence and the power for civil sanctions, well, of course, a criminal offence is where someone has created an offence and you are basically penalising or prosecuting them for breaching the law. Civil sanctions give you an additional power, in the sense that if you know something is happening or something is proposed to be done that would be breaching it, it gives you the power also to seek reliefs that actually prevent them from doing it—to apply, perhaps, for an injunction or whatever it is to prevent something being done, so, in some ways, to prevent the criminal offence actually being caused in the first place.

It's the sort of thing that exists also in health and safety. You can say with regard to health and safety that you can be prosecuted for a criminal act, but there are also sanctions that can be taken that you'd call more like a civil sanction, which might prevent you doing something, making something, or acting or producing in a way that might lead to a criminal offence. So, it really just, I think, gives a more comprehensive set of powers in terms of ensuring the enforceability of the objectives of the legislation.

With regard to plastic straws versus paper, of course, as a child I have to say I was never appointed a milk monitor, so I never had the direct personal experience of having to distribute these straws, but we only ever had the paper wax straws, so plastic straws were something relatively more modern in my life. I think it's a consequence coming out of the consultations. There were concerns expressed that in some fairly small sectors, but areas where there were particular types of need, there were reasons why it was felt that a different type of straw—a paper straw, for example—might not be appropriate where plastic and those examples were given. It was felt appropriate that there should be exemptions where that could be justified.

So, I think within the scale of things, it was a relatively small part of it. There's no comparison in terms of the scale of the number of straws that are in general use as opposed to those that are for a fairly specialised use. And it would only be within that context that that would be acceptable, but for reasons that have arisen and been accepted as valid within the consultation process.