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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the reduction in the Environment Agency's funding in the last 10 years on the control of sewage output into the natural environment.

Defra and its agencies received an additional £4.3 billion in the last Spending Review much of which is invested, through the Environment Agency, in protecting our environment. This included new funding for the Environment Agency to undertake 500 additional water company inspections over the spending review period. This is in addition to their routine regulation of water companies, funded through annual subsistence charges. We are also introducing new legal requirements to increase the monitoring of sewage discharges.