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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the use of water mills to generate electricity.

No specific discussions have occurred at Ministerial level on the use of water mills to generate electricity. However officials from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Environment Agency cooperate closely to ensure that small-scale hydropower is exploited in a sustainable way so as to minimise environmental and other impacts.