Water: Safety

(asked on 3rd February 2020) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much money from the public purse was spent on water safety measures in Portsmouth South constituency in (a) 2010, (b) 2015 and (c) 2019.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 10th February 2020

Drinking water safety measures are not funded through Exchequer funding in England.

Water companies are responsible for the safety of the public drinking water supplies in their area. Any drinking water safety measures are funded through customers’ bills. This is regulated by Ofwat, the economic regulator. In Portsmouth, the water supplier is Portsmouth Water.

Private water supplies are regulated by local authorities. Although there are no private supplies in the Portsmouth South area (as reported by the local authority in 2019), any necessary safety measures should be paid for by the relevant person. This is usually the owner and occupier of the premises which use the supply.

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