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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department last revised permit conditions for storm overflows.

All discharges to the water environment, including storm overflows, require a permit to discharge issued by the Environment Agency under the Environmental Permitting Regulations. The permits contain the necessary conditions to regulate the discharge and limit the impact on the environment. These permit conditions are reviewed periodically to determine if they are still fit for purpose. The last change to the set of permit conditions used for storm overflows was the introduction in 2016 of a new condition for Event Duration Monitoring to be required on Storm Overflows.

In August 2022, the Government published the Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan which introduces new requirements and targets for storm overflows. The Environment Agency is now reviewing the permit conditions used for storm overflows to ensure the requirements and targets in the plan are accounted for in the permit conditions. These new conditions will be introduced from 2025 as the plan is implemented by the water companies.