Sewage Pollution: Lakes and Rivers Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean
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Sewage Pollution: Lakes and Rivers
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts(8 months ago)
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Lord Douglas-Miller (Con)
Regarding one of the issues the noble Baroness raises, we now have a lot more information available to us to look at. When we did not have storm overflow discharge information, we were ignorant of the amount of sewage that was going into our rivers, lakes and other waterways. If you look at the results for the bathing water test, for example, you can see a significant improvement over the last 15 years because of all the measures we put in.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)
Does my noble friend not recognise that we will make no progress on this matter until the directors of the water companies are held personally responsible and they are fined, instead of the consumer having to pick up the cost of the fine?
Lord Douglas-Miller (Con)
My noble friend is quite right, and that is why the Government have taken a number of actions recently to introduce restrictions on dividends and bonuses. I will take his point about personal responsibility back to the department.