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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of potential impact of intensive animal farming on (a) water ways and (b) agricultural land.

Agriculture and rural land management is one of the greatest pressures on the water environment, impacting 45% of water bodies in England.

We recognise intensive farming is not without risk. Intensive pig and poultry farms above specified size thresholds must hold an Environmental Permit requiring operators to adopt best available techniques to reduce pollution. Regulations, including the Farming Rules for Water, set the standards farmers must meet in order prevent and mitigate pollution risks. The EA works with farmers through advice-led enforcement to improve compliance. They have conducted over 4,800 inspections in the last fiscal year (2023/24) and over 2,300 in the first half of the current fiscal year (2024/25). These inspections are targeted to areas of the greatest risk, including the catchments of protected sites.