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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department’s policies of the Environment Agency’s 2024 Event Duration Monitoring dataset, published in March 2025.

For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.

The Environment Agency published its annual Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) data on 27 March 2025, which set out details of storm overflow spills in 2024. The regulators are assessing this data and will not let companies get away with illegal activity; where breaches are found, they will not hesitate to hold companies to account.

Since 1 January 2025, water companies are required to publish data related to discharges from all storm overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. The Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 introduces a duty for water companies to publish data related to discharges from all emergency overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. This will match the pre-existing duty for storm overflows.

The Independent Water Commission, led by Sir Jon Cunliffe, will make recommendations to shape further action to transform how our water system works and clean up our waterways for good. A public Call for Evidence closed on 23 April, with all interested parties invited to share their views. The review's final recommendations will be published and shared with the UK and Welsh Governments this summer.

This forms the next stage in the Government’s approach to ensuring we have a sufficiently robust and stable regulatory framework to attract the investment needed to clean up our waterways, speed up infrastructure delivery to support house building and restore public confidence in the sector.

Looking forward, the government is also committed to taking a systematic approach to improving drainage and wastewater systems. This means looking at the bigger picture – how these systems affect the environment, local communities, and other key priorities like flood prevention, economic growth, and urban development. By doing this, we can make sure policies and services work better together to deliver real benefits for people and nature.