Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of nationalising Thames Water.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has no plans to nationalise Thames Water or any other water company.
It would cost billions of pounds and take years to unpick the current ownership model, slowing down our reforms and only worsening sewage pollution.
However, this Government stands ready to intervene to ensure the continued provision of vital public services – through the use of a Special Administration Regime (SAR) – should this be required.
A SAR is not a form of renationalisation.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 chalk stream restoration in (a) Hogsmill River and (b) the rest of the South East.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) is working with the Chalk Stream Restoration Group, and other partners, to protect and restore chalk streams across the South East. For example, it is ensuring that water companies have ambitious but affordable programmes that address the threats to chalk streams, including restoring sustainable abstraction in chalk catchments and reducing the impacts of discharges from storm overflows. It also continues to work with partners to lead or support numerous chalk stream restoration projects.
The Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) is a programme used to continuously improve the water industry and thus protect our water and waterbodies. There are 8 WINEP water quality actions that Thames Water will undertake in AMP8 (between 2025 and 2030) at Hogsmill. The EA have also been supporting species recovery of water voles on the Hogsmill.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with Ofwat on (a) the financial viability of water companies and (b) protections for consumers in the event of insolvency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ofwat is an independent regulator that monitors the financial position of water companies, taking action when companies need to strengthen their long-term financial resilience. For example, in March 2023, Ofwat utilised powers provided by the Environment Act 2021 to modify licences to prevent water companies paying dividends where financial resilience is compromised.
In his first week in office, the Secretary of State met water companies’ chief executives, where they signed up to a tough set of initial measures for reform, including on putting customers and the environment at the heart of their businesses. The Secretary of State meets with stakeholders regularly such as Ofwat to discuss a range of issues. Records of these meetings are published on Defra: ministerial overseas travel, and meetings - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 has made an assessment of the potential impact of sewage spills on biodiversity in rivers in Surrey.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.
The Environment Agency assesses all reported sewage spills, considering impacts on water quality and ecology. For significant incidents, it may carry out enhanced monitoring, such as fish mortality counts and invertebrate surveys. Routine ecological monitoring across Surrey catchments, supported by Citizen Science, helps track river health, with targeted investigations used where deterioration is detected.
As part of Price Review 24, Thames Water will undertake significant investment programme to improve the environment over the 2025-30 period. This includes £740.31 million to reduce storm overflow use and £1.2 billion to prevent nutrient pollution. Ofwat expects reduction of the storm overflows use by at least 29% over the next five years.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 take steps to ensure that fines levied against Thames Water are used to fund environmental restoration projects on (a) Hogsmill River, (b) River Mole and (c) other affected rivers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Water Restoration Fund, which launched in April 2024, is reinvesting funding based on water company environmental fines and penalties into projects to improve the water environment. Funding is based on water company fines and penalties from April 2022 until October 2023. Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects.
Applications were welcomed from a wide range of projects to improve the water environment and water management, such as re-meandering rivers, removing invasive non-native species, creating and restoring water-dependent habitats and managing and reducing sources of water pollution.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 he has made of the adequacy of Ofwat’s regulatory powers to hold water companies to account for repeated pollution incidents.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains clear that regulators must be empowered to hold water companies to account, which is why the Water Special Measures Act delivers on our commitment to put water companies under special measures by strengthening regulation to clean up our waters. The Act will turn around the performance of water companies and ensure they are held to account where they do not deliver for customers and the environment.
As a result, companies are now not permitted to pay bonuses to water bosses that oversee poor environmental and customer outcomes. In May, we also announced a record 81 criminal investigations have been launched into water companies. This is the toughest crackdown on water companies in history.
In addition to the Water Special Measures Act, the Government established the Independent Water Commission to support a wider reset of the sector, including looking at regulators and their powers. The interim report was published on 3 June, and a final report is due this summer. The Government will then the Commission’s recommendations.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to require the Environment Agency to revise environmental permits to enforce compliance with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations 1994.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) enforces the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations (UWWTR) through environmental permits. These set discharge limits, nutrient removal standards, and monitoring and reporting requirements, based on population size and receiving water sensitivity. Operators must regularly report data, which the EA assesses for compliance. Enforcement action is taken for breaches. Under the Environmental Permitting Regulations, the EA also reviews permits periodically to ensure they stay aligned with UWWTR, capturing changes in population, treatment standards, or sensitive area designations. This ensures permits remain current, effective, and protective of the environment.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 reduce microplastic pollution from combined sewer outflows.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Tackling marine litter and plastic pollution is a priority for the UK Government, which is why we are working domestically and internationally to implement measures that will prevent macro-sized plastic litter which are sources of microplastics from reaching rivers, seas and the ocean in the first place.
As part of Price Review 2024 (PR24), which runs from 2025–2030, water companies will be delivering record levels through the £22.1 billion Water Industry National Environment Programme. This includes over £11 billion to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows across England and Wales which OfWat expects will reduce storm overflow discharges by 45% by 2030, compared to 2021 levels. This will help to reduce discharges of raw sewage which can contain organic pollutants, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, nutrients, and heavy metals, as well as visible litter that is flushed down toilets.
We are also taking forward investigations through the water industry’s Chemical Investigations Programme, to understand how we can reduce the levels of microplastics entering the water environment through treated wastewater. Microplastics have been recognised as a significant standalone issue and the water industry are funding six further investigations between 2025 and 2030.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of untreated sewage overflows on levels of (a) microplastic, (b) nano plastic and (c) macro plastic pollution in rivers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Tackling marine litter and plastic pollution is a priority for the UK Government, which is why we are working domestically and internationally to implement measures that will prevent plastic and other litter from reaching rivers and ocean in the first place.
As part of Price Review 2024 (PR24), which runs from 2025–2030, water companies will be delivering record levels through the £22.1 billion Water Industry National Environment Programme. This includes over £11 billion to improve nearly 3000 storm overflows across England and Wales. This will help to reduce discharges of raw sewage which can contain organic pollutants, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, nutrients, and heavy metals, as well as visible litter that is flushed down toilets.
We are also taking forward investigations through the Chemical Investigations Programme, to understand how we can reduce the levels of microplastics entering the water environment through wastewater. Microplastics have been recognised as a significant standalone issue and the water industry are funding six further investigations between 2025 and 2030.
The technology for accurately measuring such small, nanometre-sized particles in complex samples such as river water is scientifically challenging. My officials are maintaining a close watch on emerging scientific evidence reporting the presence of nano plastics and the possible risks which they may pose in the water environment.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of consumer protections for billpayers of water services where the agreed environmental standards have not been met.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is strengthening consumer protections by bringing forward secondary legislation to introduce new and increased compensation - double the previous amounts or more - which will be compulsory for water companies to pay customers for poor service, underscoring our commitment to hold companies to account and stand up for consumers.
Furthermore, our Water (Special Measures) Act delivered on our promise to put water companies under tough special measures, by strengthening regulation as a first legislative step towards improving the sector. As part of the Act, Ofwat has new powers to ban the payment of unfair bonuses if environmental standards are not met.