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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the Environment Agency prevents further sewage overflows from manhole number 4103 in Kendal.

Restoring water quality is a Government priority. We will shortly be setting new legally binding targets for water under the Environment Act to provide a strong mechanism for driving long-term environmental improvements.

This Government is the first to take action to tackle the historic infrastructure issue of sewage overflows, with new duties through the Environment Act on the water industry to reduce the harm they cause. Water company investment in environmental improvements has been scaled up to £7.1 billion over the period 2020-25. Through the next Price Review (PR24) we are using the strategic policy statement to Ofwat, the economic regulator, to make the environment a top priority.

Water companies are required to monitor their processes and emissions, and report these to the Environment Agency (EA). The EA runs this through compliance checks to ensure water companies are meeting permit requirements. Where these checks have highlighted breaches in permit conditions, or where evidence of environmental impact is found, the EA has taken strong action resulting in successful prosecutions, including the recent cases against Southern Water and Thames Water.