Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of sanctions available to the Environmental Agency for water and sewerage companies which they assess as having performance significantly below target in multiple Environmental Performance Assessment metrics.
The Environment Agency (EA) uses a range of enforcement options ranging from warning letters to prosecutions. The EA has brought 44 prosecutions against water companies in the last five years, securing fines of £34 million. £7.9 million has also been donated to environmental and wildlife trusts organisations in the same period through enforcement undertakings. The EA will continue to prosecute water companies which fail to uphold the law or cause serious environmental harm.