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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure water companies are held to account for sewage discharges.

This Government has been clear there is no excuse for poor performance, and we will not look the other way while companies routinely fail to meet agreed standards. Water companies must take seriously their role in meeting the public and regulators expectations.

We have introduced the toughest sentencing powers against law-breaking water executives in history.  Through the provisions in the Water (Special Measures) Act, we have introduced new, tougher penalties to address incidences where some water companies have obstructed investigations, failing to hand over evidence related to illegal sewage discharges.

In addition, The Environment Agency have increased their target for water company inspections to 10,000 per year as part of the Government’s wider focus to hold companies to account and improve our water environment.