Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will consider a universal restriction on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government published a PFAS Plan on 3 February 2026, which sets out our approach towards protecting human health and the environment from risks posed by PFAS. In the recently revised Environmental Improvement Plan, we have committed to reforming UK REACH. This will enable protections to be applied more quickly, more efficiently and more closely aligned with our closest trading partner the EU.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that businesses affected by the water outage receive suitable compensation in East Grinstead and Uckfield constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the disruption that consumers have suffered and takes the need for appropriate compensation to customers seriously. The Government is clear that it is the responsibility of the water company to provide compensation that is commensurate with the scale of the disruption.
The Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS) sets the minimum standards of service for all customers of water companies. Where a company fails to meet any of the standards, it is required to make a specified payment to the affected household or business customer. The Government announced a major update to the GSS as part of its initial package of water sector reforms in July 2025. The updates reformed the GSS, improving consumer protections by further protections for customers – increasing the payment values, to double or more, and by expanding the scope to include additional standards. South East Water must make mandatory payments to affected customers in line with the GSS following the water outages in East Grinstead and Uckfield.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure businesses affected by the water outage receive suitable compensation in Sussex.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the disruption that consumers have suffered and takes the need for appropriate compensation to customers seriously. The Government is clear that it is the responsibility of the water company to provide compensation that is commensurate with the scale of the disruption.
The Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS) sets the minimum standards of service for all customers of water companies. Where a company fails to meet any of the standards, it is required to make a specified payment to the affected household or business customer. The Government announced a major update to the GSS as part of its initial package of water sector reforms in July 2025. The updates reformed the GSS, improving consumer protections by further protections for customers – increasing the payment values, to double or more, and by expanding the scope to include additional standards. South East Water must make mandatory payments to affected customers in line with the GSS following the water outages in East Grinstead and Uckfield.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
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 had discussions with the Environment Agency on it registering property owners along the tidal Thames as riparian owners where legal evidence of ownership does not exist.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency does not register landowners in London as riparian owners. A landowner’s responsibility for a tidal flood defence arises under the Metropolis Management (Thames River Prevention of Floods) Amendment Act 1879, which requires flood defences to be created and maintained to a defined height (relative to ordnance datum) in order to protect London from flooding and inundations caused by overflows from the River Thames.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Environment Agency is permitted to register property owners along the tidal Thames as riparian owners where legal evidence of ownership does not exist.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency does not register landowners in London as riparian owners. A landowner’s responsibility for a tidal flood defence arises under the Metropolis Management (Thames River Prevention of Floods) Amendment Act 1879, which requires flood defences to be created and maintained to a defined height (relative to ordnance datum) in order to protect London from flooding and inundations caused by overflows from the River Thames.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of local councils in exercising their statutory enforcement powers to protect local waterways from pollution; and whether her Department holds data on enforcement activity by local authorities.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities do hold limited enforcement responsibilities, primarily through Environmental Health functions, for example, under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 in relation to certain industrial processes, and powers relating to flooding from ordinary watercourses. However, these are distinct from the regulation of water company discharges.
Enforcement against pollution from water companies is the responsibility of the Environment Agency, which issues discharge permits, monitors compliance, and takes civil or criminal enforcement action where offences occur. Defra sets the overall legislative and policy framework for this system, including recent reforms under the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, which strengthens the ability of regulators to take faster and tougher action, including new criminal liability for company executives.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her department is taking to strengthen flood resiliency around major transport routes in the South West.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Delivering on the Plan for Change, this Government is investing at least £10.5 billion until 2036 to construct new flood schemes and repair existing defences, helping to avoid disruption to transport and other infrastructure damage, as well as continuing to protect communities from the devastating impacts of climate change.
As published in the Flood and coastal erosion risk management (Section 18) report – in 24/25 – Wessex, and Devon, Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly received a combined £173 million, better protecting 4,036 properties across these regions.
The final list of schemes to benefit in 2026/27 is due to be published on GOV.UK in March 2026.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress the VMD has made with its roadmap to help address the presence of chemicals from pet flea and tick treatments in UK waterways.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) leads the cross‑government Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PiE) Group and is taking forward a programme of work to address the presence of chemicals from pet flea and tick treatments in UK waterways. In response to detections of fipronil and imidacloprid above toxicity thresholds for aquatic invertebrates, the VMD published a roadmap setting out planned actions.
Progress includes holding the first PiE stakeholder workshop in Summer 2025, commissioning research on pet owner behaviours and exposure modelling, and working with environment agencies to improve monitoring data consistency. The VMD is also undertaking an evidence‑based review of the legal distribution categories for products containing these substances and contributing to international work to consider updates to environmental risk assessment approaches.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help support (a) the older population and (b) pensioners with water poverty.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies are more than doubling social tariff support for vulnerable customers and Government is working with industry to keep their support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers are supported. We are considering ways to drive more consistency across the schemes and increase awareness of the support consumers can access. Defra also expects companies to hold themselves accountable for their public commitment to end water poverty by 2030.
Government has committed to reforming the WaterSure support scheme. We recently consulted on proposals to increase scope and support to low-income households who have higher water usage due to medical needs or three or more children in the household.
We expect all water companies to make sure households are aware of the schemes and measures available to help those struggling to pay their bills and do everything they can to support all customers who are vulnerable, including having regard to the interests of individuals of pensionable age.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 support households with increases to water bills.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies are more than doubling social tariff support for vulnerable customers and Government is working with industry to keep their support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers are supported. We are considering ways to drive more consistency across the schemes and increase awareness of the support consumers can access. Defra also expects companies to hold themselves accountable for their public commitment to end water poverty by 2030.
Government has committed to reforming the WaterSure support scheme. We recently consulted on proposals to increase scope and support to low-income households who have higher water usage due to medical needs or three or more children in the household.
We expect all water companies to make sure households are aware of the schemes and measures available to help those struggling to pay their bills and do everything they can to support all customers who are vulnerable, including having regard to the interests of individuals of pensionable age.