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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help local authorities tackle eutrophication.

Local planning authorities are supported by the responses of regulators the Environment Agency (EA) and Natural England as statutory consultees in the planning process.

The EA undertakes further duties as a regulator by controlling the quantity of nutrients from Sewage Treatment Works to water bodies through the Environmental Permitting Regulations.