Oral Answers to Questions

Kate Osborne Excerpts

Thursday 8th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Olney (Richmond Park) (LD)]

10. What steps he is taking to help ensure sewage is not discharged into UK waterways.

[Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)]

16. What steps he is taking to ensure that untreated sewage is not discharged into rivers, inland waterways and the sea.

[Mr Speaker]

I welcome the new Secretary of State.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kate Osborne]

Since asking a question on this issue in the House on Tuesday, we now have a new Secretary of State—I welcome him to his place—but we also have a new wave of sewage warnings across the country. Over 100 beaches have pollution warnings for untreated sewage. Water companies such as Northumbrian Water in my area have paid billions in dividends for dumping filthy raw sewage on to our playing fields, our beaches and our waters, and that is having a huge impact on biodiversity and public health. I went to the River Don in Boldon in my constituency a few weeks back, and the stench alone made clear the scale of the issue. The last Minister refused to do anything about this environmental vandalism. Will the new Minister take urgent action?

[Mr Jayawardena]

First, I do not recognise the hon. Lady’s account at the end of her question. The Government have been working on this issue, and we passed the landmark Environment Act 2021. My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Steve Double) published his plan over the summer, and we set out in that plan that there will be £56 billion of capital investment to tackle these issues. Indeed, we have ruled out some of the rises that the Opposition would have liked, which have added £122 to household bills. As I set out to the House, we are tackling this.