Plastic (2019)

Response

In the first instance, please note that, since May 2018, the House of Commons has taken many positive steps to reduce the use of single use plastic items within our organisation.  This includes exchanging all single-use plastic items with compostable alternatives (PLA).  For the purpose of your request, we have included data for both types of plastic.  Further information can be found on our parliamentary webpages:
Parliaments ambitious plastic plans unveiled
Parliament to dramatically reduce plastic use through new compostable products

1. Please can you tell me how many of the following the department has bought in each year over the past 5 years, including the total bought so far in 2018/19 - plastic straws, single use sachets, plastic cutlery and takeaway boxes and plates, water bottles, stirrers, plastic cups
   This information is held by the House of Commons.
   To clarify ‘plastic takeaway boxes’ category includes salad containers and cake wedges only, and these are the only 'plastic takeaway boxes' purchased since 2014. The ‘plastic cups’ category includes plastic tumblers used for fruit salad and desserts. We have never purchased plastic stirrers or plates. The requested information for plastic items is contained in Table 1.
   Further, as discussed above, we have also included information for the compostable (PLA) equivalents of all the product categories/ the period specified. This information is contained in Table 2.
2. Please can you also tell me the total spent on each item for each year over the past 5 years, and the reason for the purchase if one is given
   This information is held by the House of Commons.
   Please be aware that the specially negotiated cost prices that we pay for these items is commercially sensitive information. If we provided both the numbers purchased and the amount spent, it would be possible to work out these prices. We have concluded that this information is exempt under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) because the disclosure of this information would be prejudicial to the House’s and the suppliers’ commercial interests. This is a qualified or non-absolute exemption and the public interest test applies.
   We have considered the public interest the disclosure of this information. These factors include the importance of transparency in the decision making process relating to the spending of public money to ensure that procurement processes are conducted in an open and honest way. It is also important for the public to see taxpayers’ money being used effectively and public authorities getting value for money. We have also considered the public interest in withholding this information. If disclosed, there is a strong risk that the House's bargaining position for the future will be prejudiced and commercial organisations may become reluctant to enter into further free and frank negotiations. This would undermine the House’s ability to fulfil its role effectively and prevent it from achieving the value for money that is so important. The commercial interests of the third parties with whom we do business may also be prejudiced if details of specific prices or services are disclosed to the public and their competitors. For these reasons we consider that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
   Having said that, we have also concluded that it is important to be transparent about the numbers of plastic/PLA plastic items used in the House, owing to the obvious public concerns relating to harm to the environment. Consequently, we have decided to provide you instead with the numbers of these items in Table 3 along with the total spend on these items for each year since 2014, to be helpful as this information itself will not be sufficient to work out the price of each item. 

In regards to the total amounts spent on PLA plastic items in years 2014-2017, we cannot provide you with these figures as only one category of items (PLA plastic cups) were purchased in those years. As mentioned previously, specially negotiated cost prices that we pay for these items is commercially sensitive information. If we provided both the numbers purchased and the amount spent, it would be possible to work out these prices. We have concluded that this information is exempt under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) because the disclosure of this information would be prejudicial to the House’s and the suppliers’ commercial interests. This is a qualified or non-absolute exemption and the public interest test applies.

Lastly, it may also interest you to know  that other than the products supplied in our catering venues, plastic water cups may also be purchased by various teams of the House to supply meeting rooms and water fountains across the parliamentary estate. However, there is no central team responsible for purchasing these water cups so to gather the information you require we would have to first locate the relevant teams or individuals responsible for this task for the various rooms and venues. As there are over 2,000 staff of the House of Commons, and a large number of water fountains and meeting rooms this is likely to exceed the limit of time/cost for which we are obliged to comply with a request, which for the House of Commons is £600. Section 12 of the FOIA relieves public authorities of the duty to comply with a request for information if the cost of dealing with it would exceed this limit.  This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days in locating, retrieving and extracting the information.  If you were to make a new request for a narrower category of information, it may be that we could comply with that request within the appropriate limit, although I cannot guarantee that this will be the case. For example, you may wish to enquire about water cups purchased by a specific House team.