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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress he has made on banning the payment of bonuses to the executives of water companies that are found to have polluted waterways.

The opposition had 14 years to legislate to ban the bonuses of water bosses – and they didn’t. This Labour Government has done it in less than 70 days. Through our Water (Special Measures) Bill, water companies will be put under tough special measures. This Bill will give Ofwat powers to ban the payment of performance-related pay including bonuses to chief executives and senior leadership of water companies, unless they meet high standards when it comes to protecting the environment, their consumers, financial resilience and criminal liability.