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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria his Department uses to assess funding applications for the Water Restoration Fund.

The Water Restoration Fund is reinvesting funding based on water company environmental fines and penalties into projects to improve the water environment.

Up to £11 million of funding was made available on a competitive basis to support a range of water restoration projects, which is administered by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).

Water environmental improvement project applications were assessed through a competitive process against published scoring criteria. Applications were assessed against other applications within the water company region that applicants applied for, by both a technical assessment panel and a moderation panel.

Following this rigorous assessment process, I am pleased to say that current applicants to the Water Restoration Fund have been contacted regarding the outcome of their application. Further details regarding which projects have been successful will be shared in due course once funding agreements have been finalised.

Details of the assessment can be found online at Gov.uk