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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve water quality in the River Itchen.

Protecting our rivers and water bodies is a top priority for HM Government. We are taking action to address pollution from a variety of sources to improve water quality.

To tackle pollution to waterbodies from agriculture we have almost doubled the funding available for our Catchment Sensitive Farming programme over the next three years. Our new £30 million budget will expand the programme to cover 100% of farmland. We have also made extra budget available this year to the Environment Agency (EA) for 50 extra inspectors to be recruited in this financial year to visit farms posing a risk of water pollution and ensure action is taken.

The EA is working specifically across Hampshire catchments with farmers and landowners to ensure they are compliant with Environmental Regulations. This includes work via the Agriculture Regulatory Taskforce (ART), funded by Defra, to tackle diffuse pollution. On farm visits, EA officers issue actions for farmers to reduce pollution risk and improve the environment.

Chalk streams are both incredibly rare and a hugely important part of our environmental heritage. To protect the iconic chalk streams of the Test & Itchen, the EA is working with regional water resource planning groups to make sure these habitats are rightly prioritised, while delivering a resilient water supply to this growing area.

To tackle water pollution from sewage discharges, we have recently published our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. Our Plan sets new strict targets on water companies to reduce sewage spills and will secure the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.  Water companies are also required under the Environment Act to monitor the water quality impact up and downstream of all their assets. This monitoring data will be used by the EA to assess compliance with permits.