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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing support for citizen science to help improve understanding of the UK's water quality.

Citizen Science initiatives can provide invaluable data about our water environment, which complements monitoring and assessment work conducted by the Environment Agency (EA). In recognition of this the EA is delivering the first phase of a three-year citizen science project: Supporting Citizen Science. This project is working with partners across England to explore how the EA can best utilise citizen science evidence alongside its own monitoring data to further increase understanding of water quality. Recommendations from this project are expected in 2025.