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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the environmental effect of water-saving schemes, including Refill.

The 25 Year Environment Plan sets out our ambitions to improve water efficiency. Lowering water consumption helps to reduce the total volume of water taken from the environment, helping to address unsustainable abstraction. The Government is working with the water industry, Waterwise and other groups to investigate a variety of tools and techniques to deliver this. I will report to the House later this year on the steps we are taking to encourage water conservation.

The aim of the water refill scheme is primarily to reduce plastic waste rather than to save water.