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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (a) what recent assessment her Department has made of adequacy of the ecological health of chalk streams; and (b) what steps she is taking to meet Environment Act 2021 targets for their recovery.

Under the Environment Act 2021, a legally binding target was set to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment from agriculture entering the water environment by 40% by 2038. We have committed to a review of the Environmental Improvement Plan which will set out how Defra will deliver our ambitious Environment Act targets to clean up our waterways.

This Government is already taking action to restore our chalk streams to better ecological health. Our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan ensures chalk streams are prioritised for improvement as part of the record £11 billion investment to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows in England and Wales. We are reducing the risk of harmful abstraction by an estimated 126 million litres daily by 2030 through the amendment of water company abstraction licences, protecting vital water flows to these fragile ecosystems.