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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) water supply systems and (b) other critical infrastructure are resilient to projected climate impacts.

In the Water White Paper, the Government set out our commitment to developing statutory resilience standards, which will be brought forward through the Clean Water Bill announced in the King’s Speech.

These standards will require companies to undertake long-term assessments of their water supply and sewerage assets and systems. Alongside a reformed approach to setting funding and incentives for asset maintenance, these standards will safeguard customer services in the context of a changing climate as well as population growth and other pressures.

Furthermore, a programme of £8 billion has been secured through to 2030 to invest in infrastructure and actions to improve water supply resilience. Major supply infrastructure planned before 2050 includes 10 new reservoirs, 9 water transfer schemes and 2 desalination schemes.