Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of water company compliance with priority services register commitments during unplanned outages.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
New customer service standards came into force on 1 October, which include a standard on the priority services register. These set out the minimum standards of service companies must provide to customers registered for any of the three core priority services, one of which is delivery of an alternative water supply during any supply interruption. If, during a supply interruption, a company does not provide or is late in providing this service to the registered customer, they must automatically make a minimum £100 payment to the customer.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help increase the number of (a) older, (b) disabled and (c) medically vulnerable customers who have signed up to priority services registers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All water companies have priority service registers (PSR), which customers can voluntarily sign up to. Significant progress has already been made by companies in the 2020-25 period with PSRs growing from less than 2% of households in England and Wales in 2020, to over 10% in 2023/24.
Ofwat, as the economic regulator, has made clear in their priority services register guidance that companies should make all reasonable endeavours towards having a comprehensive picture of PSR service requirements of individual customers in their area, and that this will require companies to grow their PSRs beyond 2025 levels. They also make clear that as companies take steps to grow their PSRs, they should prioritise those customers at greatest risk of harm.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the performance of Thames Water’s priority services register during the water supply interruption in (a) Lyneham, (b) Royal Wootton Bassett, (c) Lydiard, (d) Purton, (e) Cricklade and (f) Cirencester on 21 September 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Security and Emergency Measures Direction 2022 (SEMD), water companies are required to identify and prioritise vulnerable customers when responding to water supply interruption incidents. Defra expects companies to follow Ofwat guidance on priority services registers to meet this requirement.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) regulate water company performance against SEMD requirements.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps with (a) Ofwat, (b) the Department for Health and Social Care and (c) local authorities to enable proportionate data-sharing so that (i) water companies and (ii) councils can identify vulnerable households for priority services register support.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies manage their own lists of customers who are on the Priority Services Register.
Ofwat, the economic regulator, has set out in their vulnerability guidance that companies should consider how their records of customers’ needs can be designed in a way that can help deliver wider benefits to their customers; for example, reducing communication burdens for customers through data sharing.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the (a) Environment Agency and (b) Drinking Water Inspectorate assesses the potential impact of repeated potable-water leaks on (i) soil structure damage, (ii) runoff pathways and (iii) other (A) environmental and (B) soil issues; and if she will issue guidance to farmers on (1) reporting and (2) remediation.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency has ensured that water companies have robust plans in place to halve leakage by 2050. The pathway to achieving this involves a reduction of approximately 30% by 2030 from 2019/20 levels. This equates to a nearly 700 Million litres per day reduction in leakage from the baseline. Water companies are now funded to deliver this through their business plans, and regulators will be assessing company performance in meeting this commitment.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Ofwat on funding within the 2024 Price Review (AMP8) period for (a) potable-mains renewal, (b) additional isolation valves and (c) pressure management in the (i) North Wiltshire and (ii) South Cotswolds supply areas; and whether those programmes are aligned to local plan housing trajectories.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra Ministers and officials have had numerous conversations with Ofwat about a range of issues, including in relation to the Price Review 2024.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
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 require chewing gum manufacturers to disclose the full composition of gum base on product labels.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Current food labelling rules permit manufacturers to list ‘gum base’ as an ingredient, where ‘gum base’ means gum preparations used in the manufacture of gum base for chewing gum. Manufacturers can provide more descriptive information relating to ingredients contained in the ‘gum base’ if they wish but this is not a requirement. There are currently no plans to amend the legislation.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the context of Natural England no longer accepting complaints about the spread of injurious weeds, by what means the Weeds Act 1959 is now being enforced.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England (NE) is dealing with historic weeds complaints but is not currently taking new complaints. This is a temporary measure whilst NE reviews with Defra the approach to addressing injurious weeds, to improve access to appropriate advice and guidance and ensure enforcement resources are targeted most effectively.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason Natural England is no longer accepting complaints about the spread of injurious weeds.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England (NE) is dealing with historic weeds complaints but is not currently taking new complaints. This is a temporary measure whilst NE reviews with Defra the approach to addressing injurious weeds, to improve access to appropriate advice and guidance and ensure enforcement resources are targeted most effectively.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what means the Weeds Act 1959 is being enforced.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England (NE) is dealing with historic weeds complaints but is not currently taking new complaints. This is a temporary measure whilst NE reviews with Defra the approach to addressing injurious weeds, to improve access to appropriate advice and guidance and ensure enforcement resources are targeted most effectively.