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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of deploying shade balls in reservoirs to conserve water supplies during periods of extreme heat.

Water companies have the statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water and set out how they plan to continue to do this through statutory Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs). The Government understands some water companies have carried out shade ball trials but that there has been no wide scale deployment.