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 ensure that the UK complies with its obligations on urban waste water standards; and what funding he has allocated to ensure urban waste water standards are maintained.

Water quality is a devolved matter. In England, urban waste water standards are set by the Urban Waste Water Treatment (England and Wales) Regulations 1994. These regulations set standards for the collection, treatment and discharge of waste water and impose duties on water and sewerage companies to meet these standards. Compliance with the standards is regulated by the Environment Agency and any non-compliance is subject to enforcement action. The environmental programme that the water companies will be implementing over the next five years includes around £800 million of investment specifically in relation to urban waste water, as part of a wider package of £4 billion of investment to reduce pollution from waste water.