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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to expand the use of dynamic abstraction licensing to support water resource management across catchments.

Defra is taking steps to move towards a more dynamic abstraction licensing system.

The Environment Agency (EA) supports innovative approaches to abstraction that ensure the rights of other abstractors are protected, while safeguarding the environment. Defra and the EA are facilitating an MHCLG Cambridge Growth funded trial of smart agricultural abstraction in East Anglia this year. The trial will use new technologies to monitor water flows and abstraction, maximising water availability. The EA are also developing digital systems to enable more responsive abstraction management. The Government plans to bring abstraction and impoundment regulation into the Environmental Permitting Regulations, providing a more flexible legislative framework.