Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to provide additional resources to the Environment Agency to support works to restore full navigation under Temple Footbridge in Hurley.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) will continue to invest in its Navigation infrastructure. Once the indicative costs of completing the Temple Footbridge project is known, the amount of additional grant in aid available to the EA for this project will be calculated.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help increase the number of (a) older, (b) disabled and (c) medically vulnerable customers who have signed up to priority services registers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All water companies have priority service registers (PSR), which customers can voluntarily sign up to. Significant progress has already been made by companies in the 2020-25 period with PSRs growing from less than 2% of households in England and Wales in 2020, to over 10% in 2023/24.
Ofwat, as the economic regulator, has made clear in their priority services register guidance that companies should make all reasonable endeavours towards having a comprehensive picture of PSR service requirements of individual customers in their area, and that this will require companies to grow their PSRs beyond 2025 levels. They also make clear that as companies take steps to grow their PSRs, they should prioritise those customers at greatest risk of harm.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of updating the Environment Agency’s treatment plant discharge permits to account for seasonal low flows.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) considers seasonal variations, including periods of low river flow, when setting and reviewing environmental permits for water discharge and groundwater activities under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.
Where evidence shows that changing flow patterns, such as more frequent or prolonged low flows, affect environmental risk, the EA can review and vary permits accordingly.
Defra keeps permitting approaches under review, taking account of evolving hydrological data, climate change projections, and wider environmental objectives to ensure permits remain protective, proportionate, and responsive to changing pressures.
The Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan spill frequency targets for storm overflows (ecological, bathing and rainfall targets) are defined as an average over 10 consecutive years. It is recognised that a 10-year assessment requires significant time to determine permit compliance and therefore, to secure early identification of underperforming storm overflows, the EA may use a shorter-term regulatory compliance assessment.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has considered using multi-year rolling averages to measure progress on reducing storm overflow discharges.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) considers seasonal variations, including periods of low river flow, when setting and reviewing environmental permits for water discharge and groundwater activities under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.
Where evidence shows that changing flow patterns, such as more frequent or prolonged low flows, affect environmental risk, the EA can review and vary permits accordingly.
Defra keeps permitting approaches under review, taking account of evolving hydrological data, climate change projections, and wider environmental objectives to ensure permits remain protective, proportionate, and responsive to changing pressures.
The Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan spill frequency targets for storm overflows (ecological, bathing and rainfall targets) are defined as an average over 10 consecutive years. It is recognised that a 10-year assessment requires significant time to determine permit compliance and therefore, to secure early identification of underperforming storm overflows, the EA may use a shorter-term regulatory compliance assessment.
Asked by: Catherine Fookes (Labour - Monmouthshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help reduce insurance premiums for homes at high risk of flooding.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Flood Re is a joint Government and industry flood reinsurance scheme established specifically to help UK households at high risk of flooding to access affordable insurance through their insurance provider.
In 2024/25, Flood Re provided cover for over 346,000 household policies. 650,000 properties have benefitted since the scheme’s launch. Notably, prior to Flood Re’s inception, the average home insurance quote for a householder with a flood claim was about £4,400. As of December 2024, the average was c. £1,100. Additionally, 99% of householders at high risk of flooding can now obtain quotes from 10 or more insurers.
I met with senior leaders from the insurance industry this month. We discussed how the industry can support their customers both to secure relevant and affordable insurance, and at the point of claim.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (a) what recent assessment her Department has made of adequacy of the ecological health of chalk streams; and (b) what steps she is taking to meet Environment Act 2021 targets for their recovery.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Environment Act 2021, a legally binding target was set to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment from agriculture entering the water environment by 40% by 2038. We have committed to a review of the Environmental Improvement Plan which will set out how Defra will deliver our ambitious Environment Act targets to clean up our waterways.
This Government is already taking action to restore our chalk streams to better ecological health. Our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan ensures chalk streams are prioritised for improvement as part of the record £11 billion investment to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows in England and Wales. We are reducing the risk of harmful abstraction by an estimated 126 million litres daily by 2030 through the amendment of water company abstraction licences, protecting vital water flows to these fragile ecosystems.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of blue-green algae on water quality in UK rivers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) works with others including local authorities and Public Health England to manage waterbodies affected by blue-green algae and the risks they pose. The EA does not routinely monitor for blue-green algae but attends incidents and analyses samples where appropriate, assessing the risks and notifying water body owners, abstractors, Environmental Health Officers, as necessary.
Excessive nutrient enrichment is a major cause of algal blooms. The Government recognises this and is taking action to reduce nutrient pollution. The Environment Act 2021 sets legally binding goals to cut agricultural nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment entering water by 40% by 2038 (compared to a 2018 baseline), and to reduce phosphorus loadings from treated wastewater by 80% by 2038 (compared to a 2020 baseline). We have also committed to a review of the Environmental Improvement Plan, which will outline how Defra will meet these targets.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the article by the University of Edinburgh entitled Rescuing the cities of the deep: Corals from oil platforms find new homes off Shetland, published on 16 September 2025, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the research undertaken by the University of Edinburgh into the use of corals harvested from subsea structures to establish artificial reefs as part of seabed restoration projects.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is home to cold-water corals off our coast and tropical coral reefs within our Overseas Territories. With 4,700 square kilometres of corals across our UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, the UK is responsible for the twelfth largest area of coral reefs in the world. Coral reefs host about a quarter of all known marine species and are a key source of food, livelihoods and economic opportunities to people in more than 100 countries around the world. We are engaged with this initiative from the University of Edinburgh and continue to consider all relevant evidence concerning the status and management of coral reefs, such as the 2025 global coral reef status report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of pollution incidents in the Thames Valley were attended by an official from the Environment Agency in 2024, and by what percentage they expect these inspections to rise in 2025.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency assesses all reported pollution incidents and targets officer attendance at those posing the highest risk to the environment with 71% of serious and significant water industry pollution incidents being attended in the Thames Area. Attendance in person is not the Environment Agency's only response to reported pollution incidents. For those incidents with low environmental risk, advice and guidance may be provided remotely, and in some cases partners such as the fire service will respond where they are best placed to mitigate the impacts of an incident. The Environment Agency expects a similar level of pollution incident attendance in 2025 but will keep this under regular review.
The Environment Agency recognises that more needs to be done to hold polluters to account and is investing in 500 additional staff to increase regulation of the water industry. The Environment Agency aims to attend all confirmed serious and significant pollution incidents and to increase its attendance at low risk water company pollution incidents.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her planned timetable is for (a) reviewing and (b) publishing her assessment of Southern Water’s Water Resources Management Plan 24.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are currently reviewing Southern Water’s draft Water Resources Management Plan with water regulators. The Secretary of State will make a decision on the next steps is due course.