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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) investigations have been opened and (b) enforcement action taken under the Water Industries Act 1991, section 3(3)(a).

Section 3(3)(a) of the Water Industry Act 1991 sets a requirement on water companies ‘to have regard to the desirability of preserving for the public any freedom of access to areas of woodland, mountains, moor, heath, down, cliff or foreshore and other places of natural beauty’.

The Secretary of State is not currently investigating or undertaking enforcement action under Section 18 of the Water Industry Act in respect of this requirement.