Plastic cups (2020)

Response 

We have interpreted your request to be for information about take-away hot drinks cups and water cups available from House of Commons’ catering venues. These venues typically serve over 15,000 parliamentary pass-holders (MPs, Peers, their staff and staff of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, civil servants, external contractors, and journalists), as well as over 1 million members of the public who visit Parliament each year. During 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic led to the closure of most catering venues on the estate and restrictions on staff and visitors attending the estate. However, some Members of Parliament, their staff and members of staff for both Houses, PDS staff and some contractors providing services to the House still attended the estate and catering services were made available to them.

1. Please could you tell me how many single-use plastic-lined cups the House of Commons bought from 01 January 2020 to 25 December 2020?
   This information is held by the House of Commons. The House’s Catering Services have not purchased plastic lined cups in the period requested.
2. If the Commons no longer sells single-use plastic cups, please could you provide the figures for recyclable cups or the alternative?
   This information is held by the House of Commons. On the 1 October 2018, the UK Parliament introduced a new range of compostable products to replace the previous single-use plastic items; these plant-based products include certified compostable single-use cutlery, hot and cold cups and lids, soup containers, takeaway food containers, salad boxes, and drinking straws.
   In the period 1 January 2020 to 25 December 2020, the House of Commons’ Catering Services purchased 217,000 compostable hot cups and 47,000 compostable cold cups.