UK Parliament / Open data

Water Companies: Sewage Discharge

Proceeding contribution from Kerry McCarthy (Labour) in the House of Commons on Monday, 15 November 2021. It occurred during Debate on Water Companies: Sewage Discharge.

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Paisley. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) on her introductory remarks. As has been said, England has the worst river quality in Europe: 0% of rivers meet good chemical standards, and only 14% meet good ecological standards. We heard how raw sewage was dumped into rivers more than 400,000 times last year. I pay tribute to campaigners such as Surfers Against Sewage for the role that they play with the ocean conservation all-party parliamentary group. They have been pressing on this issue for a very long time. I also pay tribute to the indefatigable Feargal Sharkey.

I do not want to rehearse all the arguments that we had on the Environment Bill measures, other than to say it is very disappointing that the Government have repeatedly failed to back efforts by the Lords to protect our waters. I suspect that we will hear more from the Labour Front-Bench spokesperson on that.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
703 c144WH 
Session
2021-22
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Legislation
Environment Act 2021
Back to top