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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to stop operator self monitoring of the water industry.

The Government has committed to ending ‘operator self-monitoring’ so water companies will no longer mark their own homework on pollution incidents.

We are developing a new strengthened Open Monitoring approach for monitoring wastewater. This will be driven by greater digitisation and automation, making data accessible to the public in near-real time, and helping to restore public trust in the system.

In parallel, we are optimising the current monitoring framework to improve our ability to assess the condition of the whole water environment.

These measures build on the significant transparency reforms already delivered, including full coverage of event duration monitoring at storm overflows and the public release of near-real time spill data. By 2035, the government has committed to complete the rollout of continuous water quality monitors on all storm overflows. This work will support a transition to a more modern and transparent monitoring system and underpin future decisions on ending operator self‑monitoring.