Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 17 March 2026 to question 119539, whether she plans to take action against a) Yorkshire Water for monitoring sewage overflow levels at Palterton Main Street Combined Sewage Overflow and b) Severn Trent Water for monitoring sewage overflow levels at South Normanton Sewage Treatment Works.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency ensures that water companies are properly monitoring discharges to the environment. It analyses Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) data from all water companies to assess compliance and, where appropriate, take enforcement action. This approach applies to Yorkshire Water for Palterton Main Road Combined Sewer Overflow and to Severn Trent for South Normanton Sewage Treatment Works.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what action is being taken to ensure that monitoring at combined sewage overflow locations in Bolsover constituency is active 100 per cent of the time.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Act 2021 requires all water companies, including Severn Trent, to publish near real time Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) data for all storm overflows. EDM installation follows specifications set out in the CIWEM (Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management) Event Duration Monitoring Good Practice Guide to ensure robust data quality.
The Government has consulted on strengthening penalties for water company offences. This could include strengthened monitoring requirements and clearer enforcement mechanisms to give the Environment Agency new tools to respond where defined monitoring failures occur at overflow locations.