Water Supply: Surrey Heath
(asked on 3rd February 2026) - View Source
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 improve the inspection of water infrastructure in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by
Emma Hardy
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under this Government’s watch, the Environment Agency has sharply stepped up its physical inspections – carrying out more than 8,000 inspections so far in 2025/26. That is a 76% increase on last year. It is on track to complete approximately 800 inspections of Thames Water wastewater assets in the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, including those in the Surrey Heath constituency such as the wastewater treatment works at Chobham, Camberley, Lightwater and Pirbright.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate undertakes a range of activities to assess the security of drinking water infrastructure. Building on this, the Government’s water White Paper announced the Government will introduce powers to allow ‘No notice’ inspections on drinking water company assets to improve security and resilience.
The new single regulator will include a Chief Engineer who will be part of shifting the culture of the regulator especially as part of infrastructure supervision.