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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps are being taken to reduce pollution from sewage in the Ribble catchment as a result of the North West river basin district river basin management plan.

River Basin Management Plans provide an overview of a River Basin District and give details of water bodies and their condition as well as proposed actions needed for water bodies to improve status and prevent deterioration. These include actions that water companies and other sectors need to complete to help achieve good status and prevent deterioration.

United Utilities’ Asset Management Plan (AMP6) for the period 2015 to 2020 includes a number of schemes designed to improve water quality across the Ribble catchment. By improving the quality of waste water discharged to rivers and coastal waters from sewage treatment works and reducing the frequency and duration of discharges from storm overflows, water quality will be improved in, for example, the River Darwen, River Calder, River Hyndburn, River Yarrow and Colne Water. There has already been a significant improvement in bathing water and shellfish water quality in the Ribble catchment as a result of previous water company investment rounds.

These measures will be continued as part of the next review (PR19/AMP7) of water company prices.