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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he expects sewage releases into (a) the River Foss, (b) the River Ouse and (c) their tributaries to stop.

The Government is clear that the amount of sewage currently being discharged into our waters is unacceptable. Through the government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, we have set stringent targets for water companies to reduce the use of storm overflows. Our Plan will eliminate ecological harm from all storm sewage discharges by 2050.

In 2023 the Environment Agency carried out 17 targeted compliance inspections of Yorkshire Water’s waste-water treatment works which discharge into the Foss/Ouse and their tributaries.

Within the current Price Review Period, which runs from 2020 to 2025, Yorkshire Water will be improving Hutton and Stillington treatment works, which discharge into the Foss catchment, in order to ensure they comply with requirements under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). These improvements should reduce Phosphorus from the final effluent, and drive improvement of the WFD status.