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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department is making of sediment-bound concentrations of key heavy metals and metalloids within the modern river network.

Sediment-bound concentrations of metals and metalloids are assessed through the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines Programme where there is a site- or catchment-specific need to do so. The Government does not routinely monitor for sediment-bound concentrations of metals and metalloids within the wider river network. However, the Environment Agency regularly measures levels of metals - including lead, nickel and cadmium - in freshwater as part of its water quality monitoring regime.