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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to allow the Environment Agency's online reporting tool to also send notification of reports made on the tool to the relevant local authority.

The Environment Agency’s Report an environmental problem service enables members of the public to report environmental issues in a more modern and accessible way.

The service can be used for people to report water pollution, smells from waste facilities, industrial sites or farms, illegal fishing, and blocked rivers. The Environment Agency continues to improve the service by adding more types of environmental problems that can be reported online.

This year, the Environment Agency plans to enable reporting on environmental problems such as:

• those from Environment Agency regulated sites, for example noise or dust problems
• problems related to illegal waste
• flooding

The Environment Agency also plans to investigate how they can improve data sharing. This would enhance situational awareness and make reporting easier for the public. The Environment Agency would welcome collaboration with authorities interested in discussing how this could work.