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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of the (a) fines and (b) other penalties levied on water companies will be used for projects to clean chalk streams.

The Water Restoration Fund, which launched in April 2024, was established to reinvest water company environmental fines and penalties back into projects to improve the water environment. A total of £11 million, based on fines and penalties from April 2022 until October 2023, will be invested into local projects to improve our waterways. Over the next two years, the Water Restoration Fund will invest over £795,000 of water company fines and penalties specifically into chalk streams.

Going forwards, this Government has announced that over £100 million in fines and penalties levied against water companies since October 2023, as well as future fines and penalties, will be reinvested into projects across the country to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas.