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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on legislating so that water resilience projects are automatically treated as nationally significant; and which of the other planned reservoirs in Somerset, Suffolk, Kent, East Sussex and the West Midlands she expects to enter the Planning Inspectorate process, and when.

Projects meeting the Planning Act 2008 thresholds, or designated under section 35 direction, enter the Development Consent Order regime. The Suffolk reservoir proposals are proceeding under this process. The Somerset, Kent, East Sussex and West Midlands schemes could also do so if developers seek and obtain a section 35 direction.