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

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on the River Deben Action Plan.

Publicly launched in May 2024 the "Recovering the Deben - From Source to Sea" action plan developed by The East Suffolk Catchment Partnership (ESCP) continues to secure action in the catchment. Since the plan’s launch, the East Suffolk Catchment Partnership has been working with landowners to develop natural flood management schemes in the upper catchment, with the Forestry Commission to improve woodland connectivity, and with a wide range of stakeholders to improve riparian habitats. In addition, the partners have come together to share monitoring and evidence and are developing a State of the Deben Report. A successful bid on behalf of the partnership by the Rivers Trust into the Water Restoration Fund marks a major milestone in supporting the action plan ambitions. With funding in place, the Rivers Trust is recruiting a Programme Manager to work with partners, stakeholders, and local communities to secure further improvements such as addressing fish passage, installing buffer strips alongside the watercourse throughout the catchment, the use of nutrient attenuation ponds, and increasing the understanding of catchment water quality impacts on the Deben Estuary, a Site of Special Scientific Interest in need of recovery.