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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria her department used in its decision to aim to conduct 10,000 water company asset inspections by April 2026.

The Environment Agency (EA) increased its capacity for inspections of water company assets, with over 4,000 inspections completed from April 2024 to March 2025.

In April 2025 the EA increased its target for inspections to a further 10,000 in 2025/26 as part of the Governments wider focus to hold companies to account and improve out water environment. As of 31 March, the EA has successfully achieved this target – further details can be found here.