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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of an enforcement undertaking in reducing the incidence of pollution of English watercourses.

Enforcement undertakings have only been available for the main water pollution offences in England under the Environmental Permitting Regulations (2010) since April 2015, although they have been used on a few occasions since 2011 under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act (1975).

Enforcement undertakings provide a useful tool to be used, alongside other enforcement options such as prosecution and formal caution, to mitigate the impact of pollution and minimise the risk of similar incidents reoccurring. As yet it is too early to have assessed their effectiveness in reducing the incidence of pollution in the longer term.