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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of applications for new designated bathing water sites were (a) accepted and (b) rejected since 2010.

Since 2010 there have been 24 successful applications for bathing water designation in England. For data retention reasons, we only hold the number of unsuccessful applications from 2016. In 2023 Defra received 30 applications for proposed new designated bathing waters, 27 of which met the application eligibility criteria and were therefore included in the public consultation which closed on 10 March 2024.

Based on our records, the breakdown of successful and unsuccessful applications for designated bathing waters received since 2010 is in the attached table.