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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to hold water companies to account for non-compliance with sewage management rules.

We will not let companies get away with illegal activity and where breaches are found, the Environment Agency (EA) will not hesitate to hold companies to account.

From 1 January 2025, water companies will be required to publish data related to discharges from all storm overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. In addition to this, the Water (Special Measures) Bill will introduce a similar duty for emergency overflows. This will create an unprecedented level of transparency, enabling the public and regulators to see where, and how often, overflows are discharged, and hold water companies to account.

The Bill will also provide the most significant increase in enforcement powers to the regulators in a decade. These include new powers to enable the EA to recover costs associated with their enforcement activity of the water industry.

In May 2024, the EA confirmed a tougher inspections and enforcement regime that will be backed by at least £55 million each year and will make better use of data analytics and technology. This will be fully funded through a combination of increased grant-in-aid from Defra and additional funding from water company permit charges.