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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government will take to improve water quality and flood resilience in Surrey and Guildford, in the context of the latest environmental progress assessment.

The Environment Agency (EA) works with the Surrey Local Resilience Forum to plan and prepare for incidents and mitigate impacts on local communities.

In Guildford, the EA has temporary flood barriers ready for deployment, and is developing a scheme which will reduce flood risk from the River Wey to over 300 properties.

Citizens and organisations can check flood risk and register for warnings by accessing Check the long term flood risk for an area in England.

Regarding improving river quality in Surrey, the EA leads on the Water Industry National Environment Programme with improvement schemes that Thames Water must implement including the reduction of phosphorus levels in treated sewage effluent and investigations of storm overflows at Guildford, Woking, Weybridge, Camberley, and Dorking.

The EA is transforming its regulation of water companies, developing a larger specialised workforce, and delivering a step change in inspections of permitted sites and associated enforcement.