Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many bathing waters were classified as poor in each of the last ten years, and what estimate his Department has made of the potential impact on domestic tourism trends.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The following table shows the number of bathing waters classified as poor over the previous 10 years.
Year | Number of bathing waters classified as poor and notes. |
2015 | 12 |
2016 | 6 |
2017 | 7 |
2018 | 9 |
2019 | 7 |
2020 | Classifications were not produced in 2020 due to the pandemic |
2021 | 4 |
2022 | 12 |
2023 | 18 |
2024 | 37 |
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to collaborate with (a) VisitBritain, (b) local authorities and (c) tourism boards to measure the impact of water quality on destination attractiveness.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government has reset the water sector; we are stopping the sewage scandal and transforming the water industry from one of decline to one of opportunity. The Government has frequent discussions with a wide variety of stakeholders on its policies. For example, various Local Authorities and local tourist office responded to the consultation process for the Reform of the Bathing Waters Regulations 2013. Our bathing waters bring important social and health benefits to the local communities surrounding them, and help coastal towns prosper by attracting tourists from across the UK and the world.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that school food standards contribute to reducing childhood obesity levels.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for children, the department is acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the School Food Standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance and the Standards support strategies around health.
The department is looking at the impact of the School Food Standards on obesity levels amongst children. More widely, the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) provides robust school age health and inequalities data to assess and monitor the impact of polices and plan services at a local level. NCMP data on child obesity prevalence in Blackpool is not available at Parliamentary Constituency level but is available at the local authority level.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of school food standards on obesity levels among children in Blackpool South constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for children, the department is acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the School Food Standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance and the Standards support strategies around health.
The department is looking at the impact of the School Food Standards on obesity levels amongst children. More widely, the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) provides robust school age health and inequalities data to assess and monitor the impact of polices and plan services at a local level. NCMP data on child obesity prevalence in Blackpool is not available at Parliamentary Constituency level but is available at the local authority level.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many visitors accessed the Environment Agency’s Swimfo bathing water quality information platform in each of the last three years; and what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of public engagement with that service.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has provided the following figures for use of their Swimfo website in the previous three calendar years.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
Views (number of times the website has been accessed) | 402,624 | 830,637 | 1,635,221 |
Users (number of people accessing the website) | 93,920 | 193,243 | 308,567 |
There has been a significant increase in the public’s engagement with the EA’s Swimfo website over the last three years, totalling almost 2.9 million views over that period. In 2022, there were 402,624 views from 93,920 users. In 2023, the website was viewed 830,637 times by 193,243 users. In 2024 these figures increased to 1,635,221 views with 308,567 users. These figures were collected from users who allow cookies, which indicates that usage is expected to be significantly higher than the numbers suggest. The Environment Agency has begun a programme of work to redevelop the Swimfo website over the next few years to improve the provision of information to the public.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of (a) hospital admissions and (b) reported illnesses associated with exposure to (i) Vibrio, (ii) Campylobacter and (iii) Pseudomonas aeruginosa in UK bathing waters in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information is not available in the format requested. However, the following table shows the number of admissions with a primary diagnosis related to vibrio, campylobacter, and pseudomonas, from 2019/20 to 2023/24:
Primary diagnosis | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 | 2020/21 | 2019/20 |
Cholera due to Vibrio cholerae 01, biovar cholerae | 1 | 1 | - | - | - |
Campylobacter enteritis | 5,520 | 4,341 | 4,685 | 3,719 | 3,994 |
Pneumonia due to Pseudomonas | 1,145 | 1,009 | 863 | 586 | 990 |
Congenital pneumonia due to Pseudomonas | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Source: Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity, available at the following link:
The above data does not record the underlying causation, including any illness associated with United Kingdom bathing waters.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of levels of public awareness of where to find bathing water quality test results; and whether it plans to improve the (a) visibility and (b) accessibility of this information at bathing sites and online.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) recently commissioned research on behaviours and attitudes of people involved in water activities and included a question on where people accessed information. This revealed that the most popular sources were signs at beaches, the EA’s Swimfo website and Gov.UK online.
The EA is committed to improving the provision of bathing water information to the public and has used the research findings to inform re-development of its Swimfo website which will be delivered over the next few years. The project is currently at its scoping stage and aims to modernise Swimfo and to provide bathers with targeted information on bathing water quality. There are no plans to change beach signage at this stage.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission's revised code of practice for services, public functions and associations on infrastructure costs for sports facilities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
A public consultation on the EHRC’s Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations is now underway. We would encourage people to ensure their views are heard by submitting a response to the consultation. The Government will consider the EHRC's updated draft Code of Practice once it has been submitted and engage the EHRC to ensure it provides the certainty and clarity service providers need, in line with the Supreme Court ruling.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the cost of implementing the revised EHRC Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions, and Associations to football stadiums.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
A public consultation on the EHRC’s Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations is now underway. We would encourage people to ensure their views are heard by submitting a response to the consultation. The Government will consider the EHRC's updated draft Code of Practice once it has been submitted and engage the EHRC to ensure it provides the certainty and clarity service providers need, in line with the Supreme Court ruling.
Asked by: Chris Webb (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of eligible families were in receipt of Healthy Start in Blackpool South constituency on 9 June 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly figures for the number of people on the digital Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/
The NHSBSA does not hold data on the number of families receiving Healthy Start and does not currently hold data on the number of people eligible for Healthy Start. The NHSBSA does not hold data on local constituencies. The table below shows the number of people on the digital scheme in the relevant local authorities as of 23 May 2025:
Local authority | Number of people on the digital scheme |
Blackpool | 1,434 |
City of Bristol | 2,778 |
County of Herefordshire | 736 |
Southampton | 1,677 |
Worthing | 348 |
Brighton and Hove | 1,041 |
East Suffolk | 1,129 |