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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 30 October that "the commission will bring in expertise from a wide range of areas, including the environment, public health, investors, consumers, engineering and economics" (HL Deb col 1139), how they plan to appoint members to the new independent water commission; whether there will be a public appointments process; and whether members will have to declare any financial interests they have with the water sector, and their amount.

On 23 October, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Welsh Government, launched an Independent Commission on the water sector regulatory system, to fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.

The review will include broad stakeholder engagement. In particular, the Chair, Sir Jon Cunliffe, will invite views from an Advisory Group of nominated experts, covering areas including the environment, public health, consumers, investors, engineering and economics.

The Advisory Group to the Water Commission will not be ministerial appointments. They will be specific individuals selected by Sir Jon Cunliffe to seek views from and feed in their expertise into the commission. Further details of who will be included in the advisory group will be announced in due course. Thorough due diligence and conflicts of interest checks will be carried out on all candidates.