Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to (a) increase monitoring of sewage pollution and (b) improve compliance with regulations by water companies.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 1 January 2025, water companies are required to publish data related to discharges from all storm overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. The Secretary of State has authorised Ofwat to carry out enforcement action for this duty, in accordance with the powers conferred under sections 18 and 141DA (4) of the Water Industry Act 1991.
Ofwat is currently developing guidance, which it will publish in due course, to ensure water companies are meeting this duty. In addition to this, the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 will introduce a matching duty for water companies to publish data related to discharges from all emergency overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. Once commenced, this duty will be enforced in the same way, further enhancing our monitoring of the storm overflow network and increasing transparency.
Furthermore, the Water (Special Measures) Act will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector. This includes powers for Ofwat to set rules on remuneration and governance, and financial reporting, and new powers for the Environment Agency (EA) to impose automatic penalties, and penalties to the lower, civil standard of proof.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to reduce (a) sewage and (b) microplastic pollution from overflows in (i) Greater Manchester and (ii) Lake Windemere.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Tackling marine litter and plastic pollution is a priority for the UK Government, which is why we are working domestically and internationally to implement measures that will prevent macro-sized plastic litter which are sources of microplastics from reaching rivers, seas and the ocean in the first place.
As part of a historic £104 billion of investment by water companies in England and Wales in Price Review 2024 (PR24), which runs from 2025–2030, United Utilities is required to improve sewage discharges within the Lake Windermere catchment. This includes reducing how often storm overflows discharge from Ambleside Waste water Treatment Works (WwTW), Elterwater Pumping Station (PS), Hawkshead PS and Near Sawrey WwTW. United Utilities will also be improving over 100 storm overflows across the river catchments of the Tame, Mersey, Roch, Croal, Irwell, Glaze and Douglas within Greater Manchester as progress towards meeting environmental targets, including those of the Environment Act 2021.
These improvements will help to reduce discharges of raw sewage which can contain organic pollutants, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, nutrients, and heavy metals, as well as visible litter that is flushed down toilets.
We are also taking forward investigations through the water industry’s Chemical Investigations Programme, to understand how we can reduce the levels of microplastics entering the water environment through treated wastewater. Microplastics have been recognised as a significant standalone issue and the water industry are funding six further investigations between 2025 and 2030.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken towards achieving good (a) ecological and (b) chemical status in water bodies within Gorton and Denton constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In his first week, the Secretary of State announced a series of initial steps, which will improve environmental management and protections, also introducing the Water Act 2025 and launching the Independent Water Commision already producing its interim findings to help restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health.
Within the Gorton and Denton constituency there are five surface water bodies. The main pressures to achieving good status are urbanisation, sewage discharge, industrial or transport discharge, and physical modification of the channel. Specific chemical pollutants such as mercury, PBDEs and the “forever chemical” PFOS are also key concerns.
In accordance with the Water Framework Directive, all five water bodies have mitigation measures to improve their ecological and chemical status and address specific chemical pollutants.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many physical investigations the Environment Agency has made into pollutant discharges at (a) Wilson Brook and (b) Johnson Brooke, Hyde in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency has physically attended six instances of reported pollution on the Godley Brook and unnamed tributaries. The Environment Agency worked with United Utilities and Local Authority Environmental Health Departments who attended a further six incidents and shared the information they gathered to further enquiries.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any (a) warnings, (b) fines or (c) prosecutions have been issued for pollutant discharges at (i) Wilson Brook and (ii) Johnson Brooke, Hyde in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Including the Godley Brook and its two unnamed tributaries (which feed the Wilson Brook and flow through Hyde Park) there have been five warning letters issued in the last five years (2021 x2, 2022, 2023 x2) and no prosecutions or fines.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many pollutant discharges have been reported to the Environment Agency for (a) Wilson Brook and (b) Johnson Brooke, Hyde in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the last five years: one pollution incident in the Wilson Brook has been reported to the Environment Agency (2022) and one pollution incident in the Johnson Brook has been reported (2020).
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the water quality in the River Tame between Johnson Brook and Wilson Brook.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The section of the River Tame between Johnson Brook and Wilson Brook comprises designated waterbodies River Tame – Swineshaw Brook to Mersey (GB112069061112) and Wilson Brook (GB112069061280). Johnson Brook is not a waterbody in its own right but forms part of GB112069061112. These water bodies were assessed for water quality classification by the Environment Agency (EA) in 2021/22. The next classifications are expected next year. Details of the current assessment of these water bodies can be found on the EA’s Catchment Data Explorer: GB112069061112 and GB112069061280.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate she has made of the levels of microplastic pollution in the River Tame.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Manchester University led research is currently ongoing to investigate the microplastic load taken on by fish in the River Tame. The Environment Agency issued a permit to a PhD student in October 2022 to take samples of minnow, which will be analysed alongside sediment, water and macroinvertebrates, to better understand the mechanisms of uptake.
Under the Natural Course Project, the Environment Agency, United Utilities and Greater Manchester Combined Authority are jointly funding a study to further understand loading of microplastics in a variety of flow conditions.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it is his policy that a Clean Air Zone can be a (a) category B zone and (b) non-charging zone.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Air pollution is the most significant environmental threat to public health, and so we have an ambitious programme of work to deliver cleaner air. Our 2017 UK Plan for tackling nitrogen dioxide concentrations sets out that if a local authority can identify measures other than charging zones that are at least as effective at reducing NO2, and are at the same or lower cost, those measures should be preferred. Our Clean Air Zone framework sets out the principles for setting up a zone in England to give councils maximum flexibility to fit their local context.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether (a) he and (b) officials in his Department have had discussions with (i) the Prime Minister and (ii) Number 10 officials on the Prime Minister's oral contribution of 2 March 2022, Official Report, column 1037, regarding the Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone plan is currently under review by their authorities as announced on 4 February. Prior to this, Ministers held discussions with the Mayor in agreeing to the review. Since then, there have been no further discussions between the Secretary of State and the Mayor on the proposals, but our officials continue to engage with Greater Manchester’s.
We have not yet received any detailed proposals and evidence from Greater Manchester authorities regarding their proposal, or setting out how it fulfils their legal obligations and can be implemented and delivered.