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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps is he taking to neutralise sewage in rivers.

Through the Government's expanded Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, published in September 2023, we have set stringent targets for water companies to reduce their use of storm overflows.

The Plan requires that water companies must significantly reduce harmful pathogens from storm overflows discharging near designated bathing waters, by either: applying disinfection; or reducing the frequency of discharges to meet Environment Agency spill standards by 2035. It also sets out that water companies will only be permitted to discharge from a storm overflow where they can demonstrate that there is no local adverse ecological impact. This target must be achieved for all storm overflows in England by 2050.

Furthermore, new provisions in the Water Industry Act, inserted by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, will address pollution at source by placing a new statutory duty on water companies in designated catchments to upgrade wastewater treatment works by 2030, reducing the impact of sewage on our waterways and the people who use them.