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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the minutes of meetings that officials in his Department have had with Thames Water on Operation Timber in each of the last 6 months.

The Permanent Secretary and senior officials in my department hold meetings with water companies, including Thames Water, on a regular basis to discuss issues affecting the water sector. As water companies are commercial entities, it is neither appropriate to comment on specific water companies, on the frequency of any such meetings nor publish any minutes of those meetings.