Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department holds data on the number of occasions when local authorities have not provided information on quality of bathing water at specific sites.
The Bathing Water Regulations require local authorities to display information about the bathing water quality at designated sites, enabling people to make informed decisions before swimming. Compliance with bathing water signs is improving. Defra’s data for 2022 shows that 88% of all bathing waters in England had signage displaying the required information – this is compared with 59% in 2017. Defra continues to engage directly with local authorities that may not be displaying appropriate signage to ensure they understand their responsibilities under the regulations and to improve compliance.