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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on implementing the River Wye Action Plan.

This Government is actively progressing the next steps for the River Wye. This includes building stronger ties and working collaboratively with the Welsh Government, Environment Agency and Natural England, as well as local MPs, farmers, local community groups and eNGOs who have already been doing great work to tackle pollution.

This includes the Wye Nutrient Management Board and the Wye Catchment Partnership, which is made up of cross-border stakeholders in farming and environment. Along with regulators in the area, they are coordinating comprehensive research and are well placed to drive local action in the Wye.

This Government will not be implementing all of the previous Governments ‘River Wye Action Plan’, including a pilot scheme to incinerate poultry manure in the catchment.

We understand poultry incineration already takes place in the catchment, so funding a trial does not represent value for money. We will also not be reappointing a rivers champion. We believe there are excellent local experts who can continue to lead efforts on tackling river pollution and we will be supporting them to drive action forward.