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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2024 to Question 13669 on Rivers: Sewage, which six sewage treatment works in the River Mole catchment have been inspected by the Environment Agency in this financial year.

The Environment Agency (EA) has confirmed that the six Wastewater Treatment works (WwTW) inspected in the River Mole Catchment in the current financial year, referenced in the response to PQ 13669 on Rivers: Sewage, are as follows:

• Burstow WwTW
• Crawley WwTW
• Holmwood WwTW
• Horley WwTW
• Merstham WwTW
• Leatherhead WwTW

In the time since the response to Question 13669 was provided, the EA has inspected three additional WwTW in the Rive Mole catchment:

• Warick Wold WwTW
• Colgate WwTW
• Ironsbottom WwTW

The EA has confirmed plans for a fourfold increase in water company inspections – 4000 by end of March 2025 - to hold companies to account, including unannounced inspections.

The increase in inspections will allow the EA to conduct more in-depth and independent audits to get to the root-cause of incidents, reducing the reliance on operator self-monitoring.