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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether all instances of discharge of sewage into a watercourse constitute a permit breach on the part of a water company.

Environmental permits allow water companies to discharge to watercourses under specified conditions, with non-compliance constituting a breach (the Environment Agency's policy on overflows can be found here (see attachment 1)). The Environment Agency investigates sewage discharges and pollution that occur from the wider sewerage network outside permitted sites.