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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what requirements her Department places on companies operating data centres to assess and mitigate the impact of their water use on local water resources and environmentally sensitive waterways.

The Government expects all developments, including data centres, to comply with the relevant planning and environmental regulatory regimes. Government strongly encourages developers and operators to consider water efficiency to through measures such as water recycling and the use of non-potable supplies such as rainwater, greywater or treated wastewater where appropriat