Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Water Abstraction License applications were (a) made and (b) granted in each of the last 10 financial years.
a) Applications for new full licences, normal variations and substantial variations:
| 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | Total |
Total | 206 | 320 | 311 | 682 | 1260 | 425 | 483 | 243 | 265 | 219 | 4475 |
b) Of those applications, granted licences below:
| 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | Total |
Total | 64 | 254 | 280 | 288 | 406 | 553 | 495 | 556 | 318 | 146 | 3370 |