Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle illegal sewage dumping.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government has taken immediate and substantial action to address the performance of water companies who are not delivering for the environment or their customers.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill will provide the most significant increase in enforcement powers for the regulators in a decade, giving them the teeth they need to take tougher action against water companies in the next investment period. The Bill will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector.
The regulators will take action if any illegality is identified. The regulators have launched the largest criminal and civil investigations into water company sewage discharges ever. As part of their investigation, Ofwat has proposed fines of £168 million against three water companies. This investigation is a priority for Ofwat, and it will continue to work as quickly as possible on all remaining companies.
On 23 October 2024 the UK and Welsh Governments launched an independent commission, led by Sir Jon Cunliffe and supported by expert advisors, to recommend reforms to reset the water sector regulatory system.
The commission aims to build consensus for a resilient and innovative water sector and a robust wider regulatory framework that will deliver long-term benefits, restore rivers, lakes, and seas to good health, provide a reliable and efficient water supply in a changing climate, and ultimately serve both customers and the environment. Once the commission has made recommendations, both Governments will respond and consult on proposals, including potential legislation.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
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 support people who become ill from sewage discharge.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For too long, water companies have discharged record levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. The Government is committed to holding water companies to account. The Water (Special Measures) Bill will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector.
The Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan sets the stretching public health target that water companies must significantly reduce harmful pathogens from storm overflows discharging near designated bathing waters to meet Environment Agency (EA) spill standards by 2035. To support this, as part of one of the most ambitious investment cycles since privatisation, investment is going in to improving storm overflows to reduce spills prioritising those affecting the most sensitive sites, including bathing waters.
Furthermore, during the bathing water season, designated sites benefit from water quality monitoring by the Environment Agency, enabling the public to make informed decisions about where to swim: Swimfo bathing waters website
Throughout the bathing season, the EA also makes daily pollution risk forecasts for a number of bathing waters where water quality may be temporarily reduced, notifying bathers of these changes.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support flood preparedness projects.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are investing a record £2.65 billion over two years in building, maintaining and repairing our flood and coastal defences, protecting 66,500 properties and funding around 1,000 projects. This includes £108 million we are shifting towards maintenance to shore up creaking defences.
Farmers and rural communities across the country will see their resilience to flooding improved thanks to the £50 million funding for Internal Drainage Boards. In addition, £57 million has been paid out to support 12,700 farm businesses through the Farming Recovery Fund.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve water quality in rivers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Cleaning up England’s rivers, lakes and seas is a priority for the Government. The Government has taken immediate and substantial action to address the performance of water companies who are not delivering for the environment or their customers.
For example, we are placing water companies under special measures through the Water (Special Measures) Bill. This includes giving Ofwat the power to ban bonuses for executives when companies fail to meet standards on environmental performance, financial resilience, customer outcomes or criminal liability, and enabling severe and automatic fines for wrongdoing. The Bill will also introduce new, statutory reporting requirements for emergency overflows and pollution incidents.
In addition, for Price Review 2024, which runs from 2025 – 2030, water companies will be delivering record levels of investment: £104 billion over the next five years. This gives the sector the opportunity for transformation, delivering better outcomes for customers and the environment
In October 2024, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Welsh Government, also launched an Independent Commission on the water sector regulatory system. This is a wide-ranging review to fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers impacted by flooding.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s Environmental Land Management schemes provide payments for managing land and water in a way that reduces flood risk. The Sustainable Farming Incentive provides payments for several actions to improve soil health, including herbal leys and multi-species cover crops. Healthy soils have improved resilience to extreme weather and will recover faster from flood events. Sustainable Farming Incentive actions can also be used to slow down the flow of water within catchments, helping to mitigate wider catchment flood risk. We have also recently announced a significant expansion of the flood and drought resilience offer within Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier with new actions to store water, which can be used to protect agricultural land from flooding.
Tree planting along rivers can help slow water flow and temporarily store water as part of natural flood management. The England Woodland Creation Offer provides financial support for tree planting and incentivises woodland creation that reduces flood risk through supplementary payments.
In addition, the floods investment programme delivers a range of schemes, including natural flood management. The Government inherited an outdated funding formula for allocating money to proposed flood defences. Established in 2011, the existing formula slows down the delivery of new flood schemes through a complex application process, and neglects more innovative approaches to flood management such as natural flood management. A consultation will be launched in the coming months which will include a review of the existing formula.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help farmers prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following confirmation of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Germany on the 10 January 2025, the Government took decisive action to protect the UK by suspending the commercial import of susceptible animals from Germany and restricting personal imports of animal products from across the EU.
The UK has contingency plans in place to manage the risk of this disease as set out in the Foot and Mouth Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain supported by the Contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases of animals in England. This includes a comprehensive veterinary surveillance system to detect new and emerging disease threats. All exotic disease control and prevention measures are kept under regular review as part of the Government’s work to monitor and manage the risks of exotic disease.
Livestock keepers are reminded of the importance of maintaining strict on-farm biosecurity and reporting of all suspicions of notifiable disease promptly.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the risk of flooding in the Fens in East Cambridgeshire.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Protecting communities around the country from flooding and coastal erosion is one of the new Secretary of State’s five core priorities.
This Government will improve resilience and preparation across central government, local authorities, local communities and emergency services to better protect communities across the UK. We will launch a new Flood Resilience Taskforce to turbocharge the delivery of new flood defences, drainage systems and natural flood management schemes.
In the short-term, the Environment Agency are working hard to sustain the current standard of service in the Fenland area. £172m in capital investment has been committed between 2021/22 - 2026/27 across the area, with £23.93m of this in the East Cambridgeshire area.
In parallel, work is progressing to develop a long-term adaptive plan for flood infrastructure in the Fens. The 'Fens 2100+’ is a £9.8m programme to develop a Fens-wide flood resilience investment strategy that achieves long-term value for money and generates regional and national benefits. It’s being developed with, and for, Flood Risk Management Authorities so they can plan for the next 20-25 years of flood risk management. This investment strategy will be completed in 2025.
Further information can be found here: Fens2100+ - Environment Agency - Citizen Space (environment-agency.gov.uk).