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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that water companies deliver a sustained reduction in storm overflow discharges by 2030; and what enforcement action her Department will take against companies that fail to meet targets.

Water companies are investing over £10 billion to improve about 2,500 storm overflows in England, prioritised at overflows affecting the most sensitive sites. Defra’s Water Delivery Taskforce – chaired by Minister Hardy – is working with regulators to hold water companies to account for delivery of their planned investments.