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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) regulations and (b) testing are in place to monitor environmental lead.

The Environment Agency routinely monitors water quality in surface waters. The legal basis for assessing whether substances are causing water pollution is set out in The Water Framework Directive (Standards and Classification) Directions (England and Wales) 2015. Lead is a priority substance. Many rivers polluted by lead are downstream of abandoned metal mines; the Government has set a statutory target to halve the 1,491kms of English rivers polluted by target metals (including lead) from these mines by 31st December 2038. The Government supports the Water & Abandoned Metal Mines Programme.

The main responsibility for dealing with terrestrial legacy lead contamination in England lies with local authorities under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Deposition from sewage sludge spreading is controlled under the Sludge (Use in Agriculture) Regulations 1989.

Limit values for lead concentrations in ambient air are found in the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010) and lead emissions to air are measured as part of the Heavy Metals Network and the Particle Concentrations and Numbers Network. Emissions of lead from industrial sources are also regulated under the Environmental Permitting Regime. The UK has been compliant with the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010) limit values for lead since 2008.