Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Welsh Government reduces pollution in the River Wye.

Water quality is a devolved matter in Wales. However, the UK Government is working closely with the Welsh Government on cross-border rivers like the River Wye.

On 30 May 2023, the DEFRA Secretary of State and Welsh Government’s Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters MS, visited Hereford to discuss the River Wye at a roundtable with Hereford Council local environmental groups and farming representatives. The roundtable agreed to consider water quality issues in the Wye, including how national policies and closer cooperation between UK Government and the Welsh Government could better help local actors to restore the river.