Sewage Pollution: Lakes and Rivers
Debate between Duke of Wellington and Lord Douglas-Miller(6 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Lord Douglas-Miller (Con)
My noble friend raises a very good point; the water companies are consulted on these issues on a regular basis.
The Duke of Wellington (CB)
My Lords, I think the Minister just said that there is 100% monitoring of storm overflows, but my understanding is that, whereas the quality of water coming into the rivers from sewage plants is indeed monitored, outflows from the combined sewage overflows are not completely monitored and should be. That still needs further monitoring. Will the Minister meet with the Environment Agency and suggest that it accelerates the programme of installing monitoring of the combined sewage overflows?
Lord Douglas-Miller (Con)
The noble Duke has a profound knowledge of this issue, so I will bow to that on this occasion. I commit to speaking to the Environment Agency on this issue and will take that point forward.
Environment Agency
Debate between Duke of Wellington and Lord Douglas-Miller(8 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Lord Douglas-Miller (Con)
I am not entirely sure what the key question was. If it was about linking up across government, I assure the noble Lord that it takes place across all departments.
The Duke of Wellington (CB)
My Lords, I declare my interests relevant to this matter. In the past, the Environment Agency did not give sufficient priority to the discharge of sewage into our rivers. The Minister just explained how its budget has been increased, but the most important thing is to make the discharge of sewage and cleaning up our rivers a sufficient priority within the management of the Environment Agency. Is the Minister convinced that that is now the case and that what happened in the past will not recur, and we will have more effort from the Environment Agency in cleaning up rivers?
Lord Douglas-Miller (Con)
The noble Duke is absolutely right. Just in the last year, the Government published the Plan for Water, which marks a step change in how we manage our water. We plan to deliver clean and plentiful water for people, businesses and nature. We are delivering this with tighter regulation, tougher enforcement and more investment. The Government are committed in the 25-year environment plan to restoring three-quarters of our water bodies to be close to their natural state, and this plan will help us achieve that.