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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the adequacy of the number of designated bathing water locations classified as excellent in England.

The number of bathing waters in England meeting the ‘excellent’ (highest) standard in 2022 was 72.1%, which is the highest since new more stringent standards were introduced in 2015.

This is an increase of nearly 21 percentage points compared to 2010, when only 51.3% of bathing waters met the highest standard then in force. The Environment Agency works closely with local stakeholders at all designated bathing waters to drive water quality improvements.