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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to bring forward legislation for a new water abstraction licensing regime; and whether they propose to introduce a one-size-fits-all approach to reform of the sector.

We are currently working on finalising the legislative approach to abstraction reform. We remain on track to deliver abstraction reform in the early 2020s.

Our aim is to introduce fairer, more flexible and more efficient systems to manage water abstraction tailored to differing catchments within a national approach.