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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they expect the Environment Agency to inspect all reports of water pollution to ascertain the seriousness of the incident.

The Environment Agency (EA) receives over 100,000 incident reports a year, every one of which is recorded and assessed. The EA then focuses its efforts and resources on where they will have the most impact - so those which pose the greatest risk to the environment.

The EA's Incident Triage Project is looking at how the EA can best use its resources and maximise benefits for the environment. While it continues to attend the most serious incidents, the EA will concentrate its efforts on regulatory activities which prevent incidents from happening in the first place. Intelligence from incident reporting helps the EA plan and prioritise work to protect the environment.