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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what interim measures and emergency drought management capabilities her Department is putting in place to secure national drinking water supplies during periods of extreme heat prior to the operational completion of the new reservoirs.

The Government is committed to urgent action to improve water efficiency and reduce water company leaks, alongside new supply infrastructure, including new reservoirs and water transfers.

Water company Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs) show how water companies can close the predicted water supply demand gap by:

• Managing demand (including leakage reduction and meeting the statutory demand target) – about two thirds of the gap
• Increased water resources infrastructure - about a third of the gap.

In the Water White Paper, we set out our commitment to developing statutory resilience standards, ensuring all companies make forward-looking long-term assessments of their systems.