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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had discussions with domestic manufacturers on complying with dual labelling requirements for water efficiency in the UK and EU; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of aligning new labelling requirements with existing international standards.

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.