Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to analyse the forthcoming annual sewage discharge data to identify differences in company performance before and after the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 came into force.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Pollution incidents from the activities of the water industry are unacceptable and can have a devastating impact on our environment. The water industry must do more to reduce pollution and protect our rivers, lakes and seas.
As part of the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, a new duty has been created on water and sewerage undertakers in England and Wales, to produce annual Pollution Incident Reduction Plans (PIRPs).
These statutory plans require water and sewerage undertakers to report on the number and severity of pollution incidents attributable to their networks over the last calendar year and propose actions to reduce that number in the next year.
The first statutory PIRP will be published by 1 April 2026.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the new energy performance certificates methodology will take into account higher-rated water heaters and infrared heating.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Technologies for which we have already obtained sufficient evidence – including heat batteries for water heating – will be supported at launch of HEM: EPC. Other technologies will be added over time via the new innovative product recognition process.
Government is working with manufacturers to ensure that infrared systems can be represented fully and accurately. To enable this, further work is required from industry to develop a robust, validated test method for measuring their operative temperature.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of improving a) research, b) monitoring and c) labelling of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government published a PFAS Plan on 3 February 2026, which sets out its approach towards protecting human health and the environment from risks posed by PFAS.
Research is being commissioned and coordinated across the Government, regulators, academia and industry to close key evidence-gaps on PFAS health, environmental impacts and innovation of alternatives.
Defra has funded the Environmental Agency to develop one of the most capable PFAS monitoring programmes globally. Using improved analytical methods and data from a range of sources, it covers water, wildlife, soil and industrial emissions.
A number of the most harmful PFAS already have a mandatory classification and labelling for carcinogenicity under the GB Classification, Labelling and Packaging regime.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the flood and safety risk assessments for the proposed SESRO reservoir.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to delivering best value for customers through the water infrastructure programme, while supporting growth and ensuring a resilient water supply. The Government’s Water Delivery Taskforce is working across Government, regulators and water industry stakeholders to ensure this.
White Horse Reservoir is subject to ongoing assessment through the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) gated process, which includes further investigations and assessments to inform a development consent application.
Through the development consent process consideration is given to flood and safety management and other regulatory requirements. This sits within the safety framework set out by the Reservoirs Act. All required assessments will be submitted by Thames Water to the Planning Inspectorate and the Secretary of State for consideration.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department holds information related to an independent comparative assessment of the potential cost to the public pursue of Thames Water's White Horse reservoir proposal with (a) the creation of a smaller reservoir, (b) Severn-Trent Transfer, and (c) a combination of both options.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Thames Water has selected the reservoir as part of its statutory Water Resources Management Plan. Water Resources South East has also conducted an options appraisal process, identifying the reservoir's necessity in its Regional Plan. The plans continue to be scrutinised by the water regulators.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the potential impact of the SESRO project on the water bills of customers of (a) Thames Water, (b) Southern Water and (c) Affinity Water; and whether this estimate has been updated for the most recent increases in the expected cost of the project.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to delivering best value for customers through the water infrastructure programme, while supporting growth and ensuring a resilient water supply. The Government’s Water Delivery Taskforce is working across Government, regulators and water industry stakeholders to ensure this.
White Horse Reservoir is subject to ongoing assessment through the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) gated process, which includes further investigations and assessments to inform a development consent application.
Through the development consent process consideration is given to flood and safety management and other regulatory requirements. This sits within the safety framework set out by the Reservoirs Act. All required assessments will be submitted by Thames Water to the Planning Inspectorate and the Secretary of State for consideration.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department had a cap for the level of cost increase for Thames Water’s SESRO project above which the project would not have been approved.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to delivering best value for customers through the water infrastructure programme, while supporting growth and ensuring a resilient water supply. The Government’s Water Delivery Taskforce is working across Government, regulators and water industry stakeholders to ensure this.
White Horse Reservoir is subject to ongoing assessment through the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) gated process, which includes further investigations and assessments to inform a development consent application.
Through the development consent process consideration is given to flood and safety management and other regulatory requirements. This sits within the safety framework set out by the Reservoirs Act. All required assessments will be submitted by Thames Water to the Planning Inspectorate and the Secretary of State for consideration.
Asked by: Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled A New Vision for Water, published on 20 January 2026, what estimate she has made of the average annual cost of complying with the environmental permit regime for an average cattle farm.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
An environmental permit would require regulated businesses to apply measures to reduce pollution. The cost of complying with a permit would depend on which pollution measures they would be required to adopt, which would depend largely on the type of farm and the risk it poses to the environment.
Asked by: Iqbal Mohamed (Independent - Dewsbury and Batley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of support for water social tariff across different regions; and what steps she is taking to ensure households in similar financial circumstances are treated equally.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Evidence shows that levels of social tariff provision vary between regions because each water company sets its own eligibility criteria and level of support. The Government keeps support schemes under review and expects industry to do the same to ensure vulnerable customers across the country are supported, and customers know what support schemes are available and how to access them if they need help.
Water companies have more than doubled the number of customers that will receive help with their bills through social tariffs – from 4% to 9%.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with colleagues in the Department for Education regarding steps taken to increase awareness of the dangers of swimming in (a) cold water, (b) open water among school-age children.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues.
Swimming and water safety is a vital life skill. Swimming and water safety are compulsory elements of the PE National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2. In addition, the changes made to the Government’s statutory RSHE guidance will ensure all pupils are taught about the water safety code, supporting them to be safe in different types of water.
This will help ensure all pupils are taught about the water safety code, supporting them to be safe in different types of water.
The Government is also providing a grant of up to £300,000 to deliver Inclusion 2028 – a programme which upskills teachers to deliver high quality, inclusive PE, including swimming and water safety, to pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.