Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much raw sewage has been discharged into chalk streams in the last 12 months.
The Environment Agency does not hold the data for the volume of sewage released by storm overflows.
Working with water companies, the Environment Agency has concluded a programme to install Event Duration Monitors (EDM) on the vast majority of storm overflows, just over 80% of overflows in England, by the end of 2020. These monitors provide a robust and consistent way of monitoring how often and for how long storm overflows are used but do not measures volume. By the end of 2023, the remaining number will be monitored.