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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of local government on water quality.

On drinking water quality there have been no recent discussions with local government. Local authorities are the regulators of private drinking water supplies and are responsible for identifying risks to the quality of drinking water with comprehensive monitoring programmes in place. In England, in 2021, private water supply compliance with the drinking water regulations was 96.9% which has been steadily improving (96.4% in 2020, 96.6% in 2019 and 95.2% in 2018).

The Chief Inspector of the Drinking Water Inspectorate publishes an annual report that provides an overview of the quality of private water in supplies in England. https://www.dwi.gov.uk/what-we-do/annual-report/.