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 she has made of the level of potential risk of toxins from landfill sites leaking into public waterways.

In England, the Environment Agency regulates operational and closed landfills through environmental permits to ensure a high standard of protection for people and the environment. Permits require the site operator to design, build and manage their sites to minimise or prevent the uncontrolled emission of pollutants on a site by site basis. If the permit does allow water to be discharged, it includes limits on what the operator is allowed. If the Environment Agency identifies pollution in water it has powers to take enforcement action.

The Environment Agency is not the regulator for past historic landfills. Under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, it is the responsibility of local authorities to identify and prioritise contaminated land remediation where there is an unacceptable risk to health and the environment. Historic landfills are considered as part of local authorities Part 2A duties.