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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost to the public purse has been of developing a new water efficiency labelling scheme; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of mandating the use of existing labels that comply with ISO31600 as an alternative.

On 5 September the Secretary of State reaffirmed the Government’s intention to rollout a Mandatory Water Efficiency Label (MWEL). We will introduce the MWEL in the UK via Secondary Legislation under Section 52 and Schedule 6 of the Environment Act 2021. The label will be informed by the international standard ISO’s 31600:2022.

We are working with the Environment Agency to engage manufacturers and other stakeholders to keep them informed about the regulations as they develop.