Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the costs of the transition set out in the Water White Paper from four water regulators to one.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Across all our reforms the goal is to deliver our key outcomes - environment, customers, investability - in the most effective and efficient way possible to ensure lasting value.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many solicitor vacancies there were in the Environment Agency Area facing legal services teams in 2008, 2014, 2020 and 2026.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The table below shows the number of solicitors employed by the Environment Agency in the Area facing legal services teams in 2020 and 2026, and the number of vacant lawyer posts that were being held during these years.

The Environment Agency does not hold data for 2008, and it has insufficient data for 2014.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many solicitors were employed by the Environment Agency in the Area facing legal services teams in 2008, 2014, 2020 and 2026.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The table below shows the number of solicitors employed by the Environment Agency in the Area facing legal services teams in 2020 and 2026, and the number of vacant lawyer posts that were being held during these years.

The Environment Agency does not hold data for 2008, and it has insufficient data for 2014.

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 has undertaken an analysis to assess whether using Regulated Capital Value to measure water company values provides the most accurate measure of their value since July 2024.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 24 March 2026 to PQ UIN 120291.

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 has set a date by which it aims to have ended operator self-monitoring in the water industry.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Government has committed to ending ‘operator self-monitoring’ so water companies will no longer mark their own homework on pollution incidents.

We will develop a new strengthened open monitoring approach for monitoring wastewater. This will be driven by greater digitisation and automation, making data accessible to the public in near-real time, and helping to restore public trust in the system.

Water companies are already required to publish data on some sewage spills within one hour. We will roll out real-time monitoring across the wastewater system, and all this data will be made publicly available online. That will ensure that the regulator and, importantly, the public have the power to hold water companies fully accountable.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many meetings she has had with FTI consulting in which discussions took place regarding placing Thames Water into a Special Administration Regime.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Officials from Defra continue to meet with FTI Consulting to ensure that this Government is fully prepared for all eventualities, whist working with Ofwat to help support a market-led solution to the company’s issues of financial resilience and operational delivery.

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 has undertaken an analysis to assess whether using Regulated Capital Value to measure water company values provides the most accurate measure of their value since July 2024.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 24 March 2026 to PQ UIN 120291.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria her department used in its decision to aim to conduct 10,000 water company asset inspections by April 2026.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency (EA) increased its capacity for inspections of water company assets, with over 4,000 inspections completed from April 2024 to March 2025.

In April 2025 the EA increased its target for inspections to a further 10,000 in 2025/26 as part of the Governments wider focus to hold companies to account and improve out water environment. As of 31 March, the EA has successfully achieved this target – further details can be found here.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the most recent legal advice her Department has been given with regards to initiating a Special Administration procedure for Thames Water.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

It is a longstanding principle that Government does not comment on or publish legal advice.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the most recent advice that FTI Consulting have given the Department on placing Thames Water into a Special Administration Regime.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Any advice received from FTI Consulting in this context would be commercially sensitive, and it would not be appropriate to publish it.

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 undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the (a) financial and (b) non-financial costs to the public between the privatised model and public ownership of the water industry over (i) the rest of PR24 and (ii) over the following 30 years.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government has no intention to nationalise the water industry, and therefore has no current plans to asses the financial or non-financial costs to the public between the privatised model and public ownership of the water industry.

The Independent Water Commission found no strong evidence between ownership model and performance. We are moving forward with fixing our water system, creating a powerful new water regulator to hold companies to account and prevent the abuses of the past.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, since 27 March 2020, how many offences relating to discharge of sewage from a water company asset have the Environment Agency prosecuted.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Since 27 March 2020, there have been 37 completed prosecutions against Water and Sewerage Companies. A water quality prosecution is any criminal proceedings relating to a failure to properly manage water or sewage treatment.

World Curlew Day

Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (No. 2)

Found: the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (PEA0004) In response to questions from Barry Gardiner

Submit Evidence (by 21 May 2026)

The Environmental Audit Committee is examining the role of HM Treasury in shaping the UK’s response to climate change, nature loss and wider environmental sustainability. The Government’s economic policy objective includes a commitment to “accelerate the transition to a climate resilient, nature positive and net zero economy”.[1]