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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take, if any, to ensure that no further raw sewage is discharged into the UK’s rivers and coastal waters.

On his first day in office, the Secretary of State met with water companies and requested that all water companies provide details of how they will be making significant improvements to their environmental performance in writing by 21 September.

On 26 August, the Government also published a Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. This outlines strict targets which will see the toughest ever crack down on sewage spills and will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. By 2035, water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water, and improve 75% of overflows discharging to high priority nature sites. By 2050, this will apply to all remaining storm overflows covered by our targets, regardless of location.

Our Plan will protect biodiversity, the ecology of our rivers and seas, and the public health of our water users for generations to come. There should be no doubt about the Government's ambition and determination to tackle storm overflows and sewage discharges.