Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that (a) parents and (b) local authorities are adequately informed of the risks of Shigella-causing bacterial infections from paddling at beaches in the North West.

The Environment Agency (EA) analyses samples at least monthly, from every bathing water throughout the bathing water season. However, in practice, the EA samples more frequently than this to reduce the risk of misclassification.

The EA publishes sampling information during the bathing season on Swimfo to inform the general public of water quality and provide daily pollution risk warnings. This includes details on all bathing waters, including classifications, pollution sources, and seasonal water quality results.

Local Authorities use this information to provide bathing water quality information on physical signs at each designated bathing water, including their formal classification and a link to online details. The EA samples are tested for different bacteria including E.Coli and intestinal enterococci as the most reliable indictors of faecal contamination, but this does not include Shigella.