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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the quality of drinking water.

The UK has a very high standard of drinking water quality. In England, in 2021, public water supply compliance with the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016 was 99.97% and private water supply compliance with the Private Water Supplies (England) Regulations 2016 was 96.9%.

Water companies and local authorities (who are the enforcers for private water supplies) are responsible for identifying risks to the quality of the drinking water. They have comprehensive monitoring programmes in place and are required to sample the drinking water supply for any element, organism or substance that they believe may cause the supply not to be wholesome. The Drinking Water Inspectorate and local authorities take enforcement action should any breach of the standards in the regulations occur. More information can be found in the annual reports https://www.dwi.gov.uk/what-we-do/annual-report/.

To continue to protect public health, Defra are working with the Drinking Water Inspectorate to establish an expert advisory board. The board will consider a range of international research to help us ensure our drinking water standards and regulations are based on the latest evidence.