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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure rivers in England will be compliant with water quality standards by 2027.

In 2016, 14% of English rivers assessed under the European Water Framework Directive were in good ecological status. However, all individual indicators tested must be met to achieve this, which masks the actual state of the environment as 76% of the individual indicators tested are at good or better status.

Since 2015, over 3,100 miles of surface water have been enhanced to achieve good status and the Environment Agency (EA) has set a target in the Government’s River Basin Management Plans to enhance 5,000 miles by 2021. The 2015 River Basin Management Plans confirmed £3billion worth of investment over six years

The latest assessments of rivers will be produced in 2020 and will be used to update the River Basin Management Plans. These updated plans are due to be published at the end of 2021 when it will be possible to forecast progress for 2027.