Independent Water Commission

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lennie (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I have already said, we must get the regulator right, we must get the boards right, and we must move forward with this. There is no point in making the same mistakes that have been made over a number of years, and in not learning from what went wrong before. Getting the regulator and the boards right will be critical to achieving that.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate Sir Jon Cunliffe and the Independent Water Commission on their excellent work, and I declare my interest as co-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Water Group. What legislative timetable is envisaged? In the Statement, the Secretary of State says that he will bring forward a new water reform Bill early this Parliament. We are more than halfway through this parliamentary Session, so it would be interesting to hear exactly what timetable the Government envisage. Can the Minister also confirm that National Highways will be made responsible for the water run-off and the pollution it contributes to?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

On the timetabling, clearly, it is not something we can bring in this Session. We do not yet know when the end of the Session will be—we have not been informed about that—but when we have reached the end we will look to see when it will be practically possible to bring in such a Bill. All I can say to the noble Baroness is that this is a government priority.

The run-off from roads and agricultural run-off is being taken very seriously, and our response and how we will manage it as part of our overall approach to water pollution is being worked on.