To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to introduce a standard symbol to denote material which has been recycled; and if he will make a statement.

My right hon. Friend announced on 9 January that, following consultation, the Government are to set up an advisory group to develop an eco-labelling scheme to reflect the key characteristics of a product's environmental impact from design to disposal or "cradle to grave". Thus the extent to which a product includes recycled material and can itself be recycled will be taken fully into account.