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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timetable is for implementing the proposed reforms to the Bathing Water Regulations 2013.

The Government announced reforms to the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 on 12 March 2025 following a public consultation. In this, we outlined plans for three core reforms, nine technical amendments, and two wider reforms to the bathing water Regulations.

A Statutory Instrument is being prepared to implement the core and technical reforms, including removing automatic de-designation, assessing feasibility of improving water quality to ‘sufficient’ for designation, and removing fixed bathing season dates from the Regulations.

We have also begun policy development and research for the wider reforms: expanding the definition of ‘bathers’ and introducing multiple monitoring points to assess water quality. We will work closely with stakeholders to shape our approach, and a timetable for implementation will be planned for this next piece of work in due course.