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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of increased releases of raw sewage into waterways on animal farming, in light of Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci being found in more than 10 per cent of supermarket pork products.

The Government has made improving water quality a priority. The Environment Act has placed our ambition on a statutory footing, setting a duty for water companies to achieve a progressive reduction in the adverse impacts of discharges from storm overflows. Our Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan will be published in September and will set out the targets water companies will be required to meet to achieve this.

Currently, no assessment has been undertaken on sewage discharges on animal farming more generally. Pharmaceuticals may enter the environment during the manufacture and disposal of pharmaceutical products, or as they pass through humans and animals into wastewater treatment networks or the wider environment.

There is much to be done to improve our understanding of the impacts that pharmaceuticals have on the environment, but some are known to cause adverse impacts on aquatic life and contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

The Environment Agency (EA) and Defra has worked with Water UK on the Chemicals Investigation Programme to investigate the fate and travel of antimicrobial resistance through waste water treatment works, and are advocating more work via the 2024 price review.