Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to review the (1) performance, (2) remit, and (3) powers, of Ofwat.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Companies are being held to strict requirements by the regulators, demanding significantly higher spend on environmental enhancement than in the previous price review.
On 11 July, the Secretary of State met with water company bosses to set out our expectations for the sector, just six days after my Cabinet appointment. Alongside this, this Government announced a series of initial steps towards ending the crisis in the water sector.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill will give Ofwat further powers to hold water companies to account where they do not deliver for customers and the environment.
This Bill is just the start of the fundamental and much broader transformation that this Government will lead for the water industry.
The Government will launch a review to shape further legislation that will fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the scale of damage to public footpaths and bridleways caused by four-wheel drive vehicles and scrambler bikes.
Answered by Lord Benyon
The recreational use of motor vehicles on footpaths, bridleways and restricted byways is not permitted, therefore no such assessment has been undertaken. Any damage caused by illegal activity is a matter for the appropriate authorities.
The Government is aware of damage and disturbance caused by excessive use of off-road motor vehicles on highways where such activities are legal, such as byways open to all traffic and on other unsealed roads which carry motor vehicle rights, often referred to as ‘green lanes’. This issue was included in the consultation on the recent Landscapes Review. The results of the consultation concluded that the current Traffic Regulation Order process is legally robust enough to protect green lanes with targeted local action in sensitive areas, while allowing vehicle users to responsibly enjoy the countryside.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the evidence presented in the BBC Panorama programme, The Water Pollution Cover-Up, broadcast in December 2023, on sewage pollution in rivers.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
Due to the seriousness of the incident at Cunsey Beck, Windermere and the fact that a definitive pollution source had not been identified, the Environment Agency (EA) asked the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to review their response to the incident.
The EA recognise things should have been done better, that is why improvements have been made to water quality monitoring in the area, including installing sensors that monitor river quality in real time. Learning has been shared within the Environment Agency to inform future responses.
Under operator self-monitoring, introduced in 2009, water and sewerage companies are responsible for collecting and analysing samples of their discharges to the environment. They have a legal duty to report any breach of their permits. A failure to self-report will be taken into consideration when enforcement options are being considered.
The EA assesses and records every incident report it receives – between 70,000 and 100,000 a year. They attend those incidents where there is a significant risk, with a target to attend all Category 1 and 2 serious pollution incidents.
Water companies cannot downgrade an incident category. When a pollution event occurs, the initial incident categorisation is set by the Environment Agency based on the initial information, often based on a ‘worst case scenario’. The incident is given a final categorisation by the EA once the case has been fully investigated.
In June 2023, the EA launched its Water Industry Transformation Programme, outlining that it would be transforming the way it regulates the sector, embedding a new approach that targets resource and interventions to uncover non-compliance and drive better performance from the water industry. This includes looking at how incidents are investigated and how they are categorised.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the performance of Ofwat as an effective regulator.
Answered by Lord Benyon
The Environment Act 2021 gave Ofwat new powers to strengthen existing licence conditions so that it can take enforcement action against water companies that do not make an explicit link between dividend payments and their performance for customers and the environment.
In May, Ofwat received an £11.3m funding budget increase from HM Treasury to treble its enforcement capacity. This additional funding, alongside commitments in our Plan for Water to bolster tougher enforcement action, will further increase Ofwat’s capacity to hold water companies to account and protect our waters.
Where companies fail to meet their obligations, regulators have not hesitated to act. Ofwat’s annual performance assessment process, and the automatic penalties that apply to companies who underperform, represents an excellent example of strong economic and environmental regulation. In November 2022, Ofwat announced financial penalties of £132 million applying to 11 water companies, in response to underperformance in areas such as water supply interruptions, pollution incidents and internal sewer flooding. Money from Ofwat’s penalties will rightly be returned to customers through water bills over the 2023-24 billing period.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 27 May (5327), what plans they have to legislate to repeal the cut-off date for the recording of historic rights of way.
Answered by Lord Benyon
Repealing the cut-off date will require primary legislation. As soon as an appropriate legislative vehicle has been identified we will use this to repeal the cut-off date.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they intend to take to ensure that water infrastructure has the capacity to withstand periods of drought without requiring hosepipe bans.
Answered by Lord Benyon
Despite the dry summer, water companies in England have assured us that essential water supplies remain resilient across the country. It is their duty to maintain those supplies. Defra ministers expect water company action in accordance with their pre-agreed drought plans. Water companies have taken action to mitigate the effects of this prolonged dry weather using the range of tools available to them, including Temporary Use Bans (aka 'hosepipe bans ').
The Government recognises the need to improve the resilience of our water supplies. The National Framework for Water Resources, published in March 2020, sets out the strategic water needs for England to 2050 and beyond. The Framework sets out how we will reduce demand, halve leakage rates, develop new water supply infrastructure, move water to where itis needed, increase drought resilience of water supplies, and reduce the need for drought measures.
The National Framework takes forward the recommendation from the National Infrastructure Commission on improved drought resilience of public water supplies. The Government is requiring water companies to plan to deliver resilience to a one in 500-year drought, that is not needing to resort to emergency measures, such as stand pipes and rota cuts.
Water companies are using the £469 million made available by Ofwat in the current Price Review period (2019-2024) to progress the infrastructure required to improve the resilience of water supplies. In the Autumn 2022, water companies will publish their statutory draft Water Resources Management Plans for consultation, which set out how they will secure water supplies in the long term.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take, if any, to ensure that no further raw sewage is discharged into the UK’s rivers and coastal waters.
Answered by Lord Benyon
On his first day in office, the Secretary of State met with water companies and requested that all water companies provide details of how they will be making significant improvements to their environmental performance in writing by 21 September.
On 26 August, the Government also published a Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. This outlines strict targets which will see the toughest ever crack down on sewage spills and will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. By 2035, water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water, and improve 75% of overflows discharging to high priority nature sites. By 2050, this will apply to all remaining storm overflows covered by our targets, regardless of location.
Our Plan will protect biodiversity, the ecology of our rivers and seas, and the public health of our water users for generations to come. There should be no doubt about the Government's ambition and determination to tackle storm overflows and sewage discharges.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the existing institutional framework in England for waymarking (1) long distance trails, and (2) local footpaths.
Answered by Lord Benyon
Effective waymarking and signage has been consistently identified as an essential component in the maintenance of public rights of ways improving access and providing a better experience for all users.
Local authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of public rights of way including the appropriate use of signage in accordance with published guidance. No overall assessment of the condition of signage and waymarking has been undertaken however such assessments may form part of local authorities’ rights of way improvement plans.
Signage for National Trails is covered by national trail quality standards where there is a requirement to make constant improvements to individual Trails and its associated routes. Monitoring information on the assessment of the condition of path surfaces and structures including signage is reported annually.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to undertake a review of the potential risks posed by intensive farming of animals in enclosed spaces on (1) the incubation, and (2) animal to human transmission, of viruses.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Defra works in a ‘One Health’ approach with others, including public health and food safety departments and devolved administrations. We know the importance of surveillance for and management of the risk of emergence of zoonotic diseases, a constant threat in our globalised world where disease can spread so rapidly. We continue to develop a robust evidence base.
Defra’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) routinely carry out surveillance on farms for zoonotic pathogens. It has significant surveillance programmes for tuberculosis, avian influenza, salmonella, brucellosis and anti-microbial resistance.
We respond promptly to outbreaks to minimise the impacts of zoonotic disease associated with farming and farmed products.
Different types of farming systems can be managed in a professional way with good biosecurity plans and housing systems to reduce disease transmission.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the number of pheasants in the UK, and (2) their impact on other wildlife.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The number of pheasants and their impact are being considered as part of a review by Defra that was initiated in response to a Judicial Review. The findings of the review will be published in due course.