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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Designate a bathing water: guidance on how to apply, updated on 15 May 2025, for what reason applications cannot include organised swim events.

As per the criteria set out on GOV.UK, for a site to be eligible for designation as a bathing water, it must be used by an average of at least 100 bathers a day during the bathing season (15 May to 30 September). User surveys must be taken at a site to evidence this.

An organised swim event is likely to result in an unusually high number of bathers for that day and therefore would not provide a fair reflection of the number of bathers per day during the bathing season.

The application guidance will continue to be reviewed for suitability.