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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to incorporate (a) ponds, (b) small lakes, (c) headwater streams and (d) other small waters into the Water Framework Directive as part of ongoing reforms to the regulatory framework for water.

We committed in the recently published Water White Paper to explore setting new ambitious targets for the water environment. As part of these explorations, we are considering a wide range of suggestions from stakeholders, including calls to monitor small water bodies and to set high ecological status objectives.