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 (HL Deb col 1186) and on 20 November (HL Deb col 276) in relation to transparency by water companies, what are the pre-existing requirements mentioned by the Minister for water and sewage companies to publish environmental data proactively; what specific legislative provisions require this; and what the practical difficulties would be of mandating this.

From 1 January, companies will be required to publish discharge data from storm overflows in near real time. This duty falls under section 141DA of the Water Industry Act 1991, as inserted by section 81 of the Environment Act 2021. To support this, Water UK recently released its National Storm Overflow Hub to provide this data on the same site for the whole of England.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill will strengthen these provisions. Clause 3 will require companies to publish discharge data for emergency overflows in near real time. Clause 2 will ensure that all water companies annually publish information on the frequency and seriousness of pollution incidents and the steps they are taking to reduce them.

The Environment Agency also regularly release information and reports to support transparency and scrutiny of water companies.

These provisions are in addition to water companies’ duty to provide information proactively and when requested, due to their status as public authorities for the purposes of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Amendment 44, tabled at Report Stage of the Water (Special Measures Bill) by Baroness Boycott proposed to amend the Environmental Information Regulations to require water companies to proactively publish all operational monitoring data, in addition to any data required under permits issued under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. This amendment would have created a novel route of challenge through the courts for failures to proactively disclose information. It follows that this would also create a new route for water companies to appeal. Apart from being administratively challenging and at odds with the current legislative framework, this could slow down implementation of the Information Commissioner’s decision notices relating to water companies’ compliance with the Environmental Information Regulations.