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

To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the 3,651 water bodies in England currently have “good” chemical and ecological status; why on 22 December 2022, the Environment Agency moved the target deadline to achieve “good” chemical and ecological status for England’s waterways, rivers, lakes and coastal waters back by 36 years to 2063; and what urgent steps they are taking to address the main sources of waterway pollution, including water treatment plants and agriculture.

There are over 4000 surface water bodies in England. The last classification results showed that 16% of surface water bodies are currently at Good Ecological Status or Potential. About 97% of all surface water bodies would be at Good Chemical Status were it not for the presence of a some uPBT (ubiquitous, persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic) substances. The uPBTs are mainly legacy chemicals used all over the world in fire retardant, non-stick and water repellent commercial products. These chemicals are barely detectable in the water but can accumulate in the flesh of aquatic animals (biota). The Environment Agency’s move to biota monitoring has provided a more accurate picture of these chemicals. The three uPBTs (mercury, PFOS and PBDE) are generally causing water body failure out of around 50 priority chemical substances tested for chemical status.

Action has been taken on these small number of uPBT substances including national and international restrictions and bans on their use but there is no feasible way to remove them from the water. They will take an extended time frame to dissipate, which is allowed under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) natural conditions extension. The WFD ‘one out all out’ rule, however, means a water body must be at Good for all elements, and will fail overall if just one element fails. In all the water bodies which are less than ‘good’ overall, 79% of tests of the individual elements that make up ecological status return a ‘good’ or ‘high’ result.

There have been inaccurate claims in the media that the target for good ecological status has been moved back to 2063. This is not true. The updated river basin management plans published in December 2022 set objectives of good ecological status or potential for most water bodies by 2027 as required by the Water Framework Directive Regulations. Although action has already been taken on uPBTs, 2063 is a modelling prediction by the Environment Agency of when these chemicals will have naturally reduced, rather than a target.