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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the number of serious water quality pollution incidents that have occurred, broken down by each water company in (a) 2020, (b) 2021, (c) 2022 and (d) 2023 to date.

The EA publish water company performance reports as part of the Environmental Performance Assessment annually, this shows the number of water pollution incidents for each water company. The data for 2020 and 2021 can be found online. The data for 2022 will be published in July 2023.

We will not let companies get away with illegal activity and where breaches are found, we will not hesitate to hold companies to account. Since 2015, the Environment Agency have concluded 58 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies securing fines of over £142m. We recently announced water companies will face higher penalties that are quicker and easier to enforce.