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

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to water quality, what assessment they have made of whether the replacements to the EU Water Framework Directive will result in the improved monitoring of water quality; whether they intend to create a UK specific Hazardous Watch List; and if so, whether this will consider antimicrobial resistance selection risk of chemicals in aquatic environments, as has been included in recent iterations of the EU Water Framework Directive’s Watch List.

The Environment Agency (EA) has introduced a new long-term ‘river surveillance network’ monitoring programme for rivers to give a national overview of the state of England’s rivers. It does not replace the Water Framework Directive compliant monitoring which will still continue.

This network is a key part of the ‘Natural Capital and Ecosystems Assessment’ which will provide a statistically robust assessment of the health of the water environment.

The formalisation of a UK-wide Watchlist would be a matter for the UK and Devolved Administrations. In England the EA has developed a Prioritisation and Early Warning System for new substances of concern and monitors changes to the EU’s Watch List. The EA also works closely with the devolved agencies to share information and approaches to monitoring programmes for emerging chemicals of concern in the water environment, including pharmaceuticals which might contribute to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

Further, the UK has set out a 20-year vision for containing and controlling AMR through a One-Health approach. A cross-departmental project called Pathogen Surveillance in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (PATH-SAFE) was established in 2021 to understand how pathogens and AMR are spread in the environment and the agri-food system. This will inform future monitoring of the water environment and commitments within the UK National Action Plan on AMR.