Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 2 April 2024 to Question 17003 on River Mersey: Water, when he expects the Environment Agency's national programmes report on its investigation into chemical failures and historic sources of chemicals across the Mersey catchment to be published.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given on 4 March 2024, UIN 17003. The Environment Agency’s national programmes investigating persistent chemical failures and historic sources of chemicals across England are on-going, and there are therefore no plans to publish a specific report on the Mersey.
In 2025, the Water Framework Directive classifications for the water bodies in the Mersey catchment will be subject to a new assessment and published. Data informing the current classifications is available on Gov.uk at https://environment.data.gov.uk/water-quality/view/landing.
As stated in the original response, the Environment Agency has national programmes investigating persistent chemical failures and historic sources of chemicals across England. These programmes are on-going, and there are therefore no plans to publish a specific report on the Mersey. In 2025, the Water Framework Directive classifications for the water bodies in the Mersey catchment will be subject to a new assessment and published. Data informing the current classifications is available on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 improve the quality of water in the River Mersey.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are committed to continue to improving water quality and are delivering the record investment, the stronger regulation and the tougher enforcement to improve our water for our own health, for nature and the economy. For example, on 20 February we announced plans to more than quadruple Environment Agency (EA) water company inspections, strengthening oversight, reducing the reliance on self-monitoring.
The EA has been working with United Utilities in Stockport and in the upstream catchments of the River Tame and River Goyt. Within the current investment programme (2020-2025) there are improvements due to be completed at 2 storm overflows and at 6 of the wastewater treatment works in the upstream catchments. EA has also been working with United Utilities on their investment programme for 2025-2030.
The EA also have national programmes investigating persistent chemical failures and historic sources of chemicals across the Mersey catchment.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to tackle littering in Stockport constituency.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Prime Minister’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan set out how we will support councils across the county to take tougher action against those that litter. For example, last year we significantly raised the upper limit on fixed penalty notices from £150 to £500 and from 1 April 2024 councils will have to spend this income on enforcement and clean up activity.
On behalf of Defra and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Waste and Resources Action Programme has published guidance for local authorities on the provision of litter bins. The Right Bin in the Right Place guidance is available here.
The Chewing Gum Task Force, established by Defra and funded by producers, has provided almost £2.5 million in grants since 2022 to help nearly 100 councils remove gum stains from high streets and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum being dropped in the first place. The Task Force has recently launched another grant scheme for councils this year. Further information can be found here.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 24 January 2024 to Question 9694 on River Mersey: Pollution, how many of the 56 pollution discharges in the River Mersey resulted in action being taken in line with the Environment Agency’s Enforcement and Sanctions policy.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following the 56 pollution discharges into the River Mersey, in line with its enforcement and sanctions policy, the Environment Agency has taken action 24 times. Five pollution occurrences resulted in warning letters, 17 resulted in site warnings and two instances resulted in advice and guidance being issued.
After initial enquiries, the Environment Agency took no further action in 12 instances where no offence was deemed to have been committed, in eight instances that had no impact on water quality and in two instances where, following its enforcement and sanctions policy, further action was deemed not to be in the public interest.
There were 10 instances where a polluter could not be identified, so further action could not be taken.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 remedy metal contamination of bed sediments in the Upper Mersey catchment that result from (a) industry and (b) urban development.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are six existing voluntary mine-water treatment schemes to prevent metals from abandoned coal mine discharges entering watercourses within the Mersey Catchment, and there are currently two other prospective schemes in the National Mine-water Ranking Scheme.
There are no identified polluting metal mine discharges within the catchment of the River Mersey, and consequently no proposed schemes under that process.
Other sources of metals in river sediments are many and varied (mostly from historical industries and waste activities), but the Environment Agency (EA) only has a role in controlling discharges from current regulated activities (effluent discharges, waste management activities, landfill etc) and has no regulatory remit or resource to specifically extract metals from river sediments that have been affected by historical activities.
EA duties include regular and routine water quality monitoring on controlled waters (rivers, lakes, groundwater etc).
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many pollutant discharges into the River Mersey have been reported to the Environment Agency in each of the past five years.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There have been 56 pollution discharges to the River Mersey that have been substantiated by the Environment Agency in the last five years. In 2019 there were 15 reported incidents, in 2020 eight reported incidents, in 2021 five reported incidents, in 2022 ten reported incidents and in 2023 18 reported incidents.
In all instances where a polluter was identified, action was taken in line with the Environment Agency’s Enforcement and Sanctions policy.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 it his policy to ban the export of paraquat.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government does not currently intend to ban the export of paraquat.
The export of paraquat from Great Britain (GB) is strictly regulated under the GB Prior Informed Consent (PIC) regulatory regime for the export and import of certain hazardous chemicals. We believe it is essential that the use of pesticides that are known to be hazardous to human health or the environment should be subject to scientific risk assessment, mitigation, and regulatory protections. That is why we support notification of the export of Paraquat under GB PIC and support its listing under the Rotterdam convention.
The exchange of information that PIC provides allows importing countries to make informed decisions on the import of those chemicals and on how to handle and use them safely. This process is kept under review.
The UK is committed to working internationally through bodies such as the OECD, the Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC - formerly SAICM), the Rotterdam Convention and United Nations Environment Assembly to manage pesticides safely. As a strong supporter of the GFC, the UK successfully negotiated 28 targets to deliver a safer and more sustainable future for the planet, including targets calling for increased global action on the most harmful pesticides in agriculture – working with stakeholders to support the availability of safe and affordable alternatives for farmers around the world.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the rate of water leakage in the United Utilities network that serves the North West.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Government has committed to reduce leakage by 37% by 2038 on a trajectory to halve leakage by 2050 and is working with regulators and water companies to achieve this. Ofwat set Performance Commitments for water companies to achieve at the beginning of each price review period. According to United Utilities data, in 2022-23 they outperformed their performance commitment, delivering a 5.9% reduction against the 2019/20 baseline. They also state that they are on track to deliver a 15% reduction in leakage by the end of the current price review period.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has she has taken to tackle waste-related crime in (a) Stockport constituency and (b) Greater Manchester.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government is committed to tackling waste crime, which is a blight on our local communities and the environment and damages legitimate businesses. We have strengthened regulators' powers, are tightening the law and have increased the Environment Agency's budget by £10 million per year to make it harder for rogue operators to find work in the sector and easier for regulators to take action against criminals. We are also providing grants to councils across the country to help them purchase equipment to tackle fly-tipping. Recipients include Manchester City Council.
From January 2022 to date, 7% of incidents reported to the Environment Agency for the region that covers Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, were recorded as illegal waste sites and 0.1% related to the Stockport area. The majority of the reports for Stockport were closed, as unsubstantiated or with the Environment Agency providing advice and guidance detailing the relevant legislation, their obligations, how to return to compliance and the consequences of not doing so.
Within Greater Manchester, there are six cases subject to legal proceedings and nine active investigations into illegal waste crime. Between April 2022 to March 2023 the Environment Agency closed 15 illegal waste sites across Greater Manchester, 7 of which were high risk.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the transparency of the (a) finances and (b) corporate structures at United Utilities Group.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
All water companies publish their annual reports on their websites. The publicly available reports include financial and governance information. United Utilities’ most recent annual report can be found here - United Utilities Group PLC - Year in Review 2022 (annualreport2022.com).
In addition to annual reports, all water companies publish an annual performance report (APR). The APRs are accessible to all stakeholders and set out how companies are delivering for their customers, environment and wider society.
Ofwat, the economic regulator, also assesses the financial resilience of water companies and publishes an annual Monitoring Financial Resilience Report, which sets out observations and actions to further improve the financial resilience of the sector. Ofwat’s report can be found here - MFR_2021-22.pdf (ofwat.gov.uk).
The water companies provide an essential public service to their communities, and so our Strategic Policy Statement sets out that we expect Ofwat to encourage and incentivise water companies to foster better corporate responsibility.
Building on their existing principles for board leadership, transparency and governance, Ofwat announced on 20 March 2023 new changes to company licences that will improve the performance and financial health of water companies and provide greater transparency with customers and stakeholders.