Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Environment Agency's water quality monitoring programme, what number of (a) samples have been taken and (b) sampling points there have been in (i) each year since 2010 and (ii) each month since January 2020.
The table below shows the number of water quality samples taken by the Environment Agency, and the number of sample points, in each year since 2010:
Year | No. samples taken | No. sample points |
2010 | 131602 | 18079 |
2011 | 137251 | 17286 |
2012 | 155394 | 16790 |
2013 | 159737 | 18498 |
2014 | 135452 | 17962 |
2015 | 121755 | 16088 |
2016 | 111951 | 15428 |
2017 | 94879 | 15335 |
2018 | 86737 | 13086 |
2019 | 97587 | 14439 |
The table below shows the number of water quality samples taken, and the number of sample points, in each month since January 2020:
Month | No. samples taken | No. sample points |
January | 9475 | 8175 |
February | 7740 | 6612 |
March | 7196 | 6189 |
Data for April is not yet available.