Sewage Discharges: South West

Anna Dixon Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)]

I thank the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) for securing this important debate and everybody who has intervened. May I also express my support and sympathy for Finley? It is awful to hear about children becoming ill when they are just enjoying the things that we enjoyed so much as children. I am genuinely sorry to hear about that.

As I have said before, the amount of sewage in our waterways is unacceptable—clearly unacceptable. For too long, the level of pollution in our rivers, lakes and seas has been left unchecked. The south-west of England, with its 860 miles of coastline, is blessed with some of the most stunning waterways in the country, and it is of course vital that we protect these natural assets.

South West Water’s environmental performance is clearly not good enough. It continues to be rated as requiring improvement in the Environment Agency’s environmental performance assessment, and it has the highest rate of incidents on its network in the sector. So far, as the hon. Gentleman said, there have been 20 pollution incidents in his constituency, and they are clearly unacceptable.

Where companies have failed in their statutory duties to maintain their assets properly and protect the local environment, regulators will take appropriate enforcement action. The Environment Agency has informed me that 24 charges against South West Water currently await a court hearing, and many of them relate to discharges in North Cornwall. Of course, it is inappropriate for me to comment further on these while those proceedings are ongoing.

However, I am reassured that the new powers in the Water (Special Measures) Bill, including those relating to the monitoring of emergency overflows—I quite enjoyed the idea that we could call EDMs electronic dance music instead, and maybe that is what I will be thinking of in the future—will assist the Environment Agency with workload and efficiency relating to these types of offences. Two new dedicated inspection teams have been in place since October this year. Once officers are trained, the annual number of inspections in the region will double from the 335 they will carry out this year. I think that is positive action that has been taken by the Environment Agency.

Looking forward, South West Water is taking action to deliver necessary improvements. Subject to Ofwat’s final determinations, it is planning to invest about £750 million over the next five years to reduce sewage spills by 58% from current levels. It is also aiming to cut pollution incidents by 30%, and investing £140 million to reduce nutrient pollution in rivers. This investment will mean cleaner rivers, seas and lakes across the country—I am keeping an eye on the time this time, Madam Deputy Speaker.

On storm overflow guidance, in support of the forward investment to reduce pollution incidents, on 21 November the Government launched a consultation on updated information and guidance for the management and regulation of storm overflow infrastructure in England. A document will be published shortly afterwards to ensure that water companies have a clear forward framework to guide investment in storm overflow improvements.

The Government have also intervened to increase the transparency of pollution incidents to enable the public and the regulators to better hold water companies to account. We have included a duty in the Water (Special Measures) Bill to require all water and sewerage undertakers to produce annual pollution incident reduction plans, along with an accompanying implementation report. The chief executives will be personally responsible for approving both the pollution incident reduction plans and the accompanying document.

On the national storm overflows hub, the Government have legislated to require water companies to publish all discharge data from storm overflows in real time. The hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord) mentioned the need to have one reliable source of data, which is incredibly important. Water UK launched its national storm overflows hub last Friday. If hon. Members have not had a chance to look at it, please do. On transparency, it is very good; in making us angry about pollution incidents, it is maybe not so good. However, we can see where companies are discharging all around the country, how long they have been discharging for and whether they are online or offline. For transparency, it is a huge step forward.

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

Although I am not from the south-west, I have the beautiful River Wharfe flowing through my constituency of Shipley. Until now, we have been relying for transparency on Top of the Poops, which shows that there were over 2,450 overflows of sewage pollution last year. Does the Minister agree that these are national problems, and we really need to tackle this not only with South West Water, but with the likes of Yorkshire Water, to make sure these sewage outflows stop in future?

[Emma Hardy]

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend, and I commend her for coming and raising that point. I completely support her.