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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of consumer protections for billpayers of water services where the agreed environmental standards have not been met.

This Government is strengthening consumer protections by bringing forward secondary legislation to introduce new and increased compensation - double the previous amounts or more - which will be compulsory for water companies to pay customers for poor service, underscoring our commitment to hold companies to account and stand up for consumers. 

Furthermore, our Water (Special Measures) Act delivered on our promise to put water companies under tough special measures, by strengthening regulation as a first legislative step towards improving the sector. As part of the Act, Ofwat has new powers to ban the payment of unfair bonuses if environmental standards are not met.