Sewage Pollution

I thank the Secretary of State for his response, but I am utterly staggered by his complacency. F...

Order. Let me just say that that was a good joke, but it is not what we want to start this term w...

The hon. Lady delivered her comments with characteristic passion, but she was wrong to say that t...

We now come to the Father of the House, Sir Peter Bottomley.

Those of us who have been around for a long time do not believe that nationalised industries woul...

My hon. Friend raises an important issue, and it was only when this Government required increased...

We now come to the shadow Secretary of State, Jim McMahon.

The scenes over the summer have shown us again that the country is awash with Conservative-approv...

The hon. Gentleman’s contribution is characteristically political—[Interruption.] Let me say that...

We now come to the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Sir Robert Goodwil...

Before privatisation, every single gallon of Scarborough sewage was pumped into the sea untreated...

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. We have prioritised investments through the new strateg...

I call the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Dame Meg Hillier.

In 2019, the River Lea suffered a discharge for 1,000 hours. That was three years ago, and the ri...

Quite simply, because this is the first Government in history to require all of these 15,000 stor...

May I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and his clarity on this issue? Does he agree...

No surprises there.

rose—[Interruption.]

As a matter of interest, the hon. Member did put his name in on this urgent question, so I am tak...

Thank you, Mr Speaker; impeccable timing, as always.

Look, it is obvious to everybody watch...

Our Environment Act addresses all the substantive points that the hon. Gentleman raised. As I sai...

I will cry in a minute! Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is this Government who have prior...

I commend my hon. Friend for her role in progressing this agenda and for the work that she did on...

Recently the Environment Agency branded Southern Water “appalling” and awarded it a one-star rati...

Southern Water is one of the companies that were recently investigated, and was subject to a reco...

As my right hon. Friend knows, the River Wye is a priceless national asset, threatened by phospha...

My right hon. Friend raises an important point, in that there are sometimes cross-border issues. ...

Last week, I and 17 of my north-west colleagues wrote to United Utilities about reported signific...

The next pricing review period starts in 2025, which is not soon enough for me. That is why I sai...

Last week, I met Anglian Water to discuss the situation that had developed in Cleethorpes. Notwit...

My hon. Friend raises an important point. We are mindful of the impacts on bills. The average inc...

I have repeatedly raised the issue of sewage dumping on the beach in my constituency in this Cham...

We also published and laid before the House yesterday a report required under the Act on the feas...

River pollution and sewage discharge in Wales is the responsibility of the Welsh Labour Governmen...

We have set an important example with the storm overflow discharge reduction plan that we have pu...

We have an ecological disaster with massive numbers of dead crustaceans, porpoises and seals wash...

The hon. Gentleman has raised this issue before and there was a tragic case of large numbers of c...

My local beach, Longrock, saw the highest number of combined sewer overflow notifications in this...

My hon. Friend highlights an important point: the origin of this problem links back to the Victor...

Last year, South West Water dumped 350,000 hours of raw sewage into the rivers and seas around th...

The Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member f...

On the island, we have persuaded Southern Water to undertake its most ambitious pathfinder projec...

It is important to distinguish between the failure of water companies to abide by their permit co...

I hope you will excuse me for being slightly political on this matter, Mr Speaker. The Secretary ...

As I said, we have brought many prosecutions since 2015 and levied fines of about £140 million on...

Mr Speaker, thank you for granting not only this urgent question, but a 90-minute debate next Wed...

I absolutely give my hon. Friend that assurance. Our discharge reduction plan absolutely prioriti...

While water companies such as Northumbria Water have made on average £2 billion profit a year sin...

I hope I have made it clear that we are not content with criminal behaviour, which is precisely w...

At the hottest part of the summer, beaches from Hastings to Worthing were blighted by the dischar...

My hon. Friend raises an important point. As I said in my statement, we are now requiring water c...

Despite 12 years of Tory government and some of the tough and strong words in the Chamber today, ...

I am the first Secretary of State ever to publish a plan such as this. One of my first acts as Se...

May I thank my right hon. Friend and his Ministers for all that they are doing to tackle this iss...

My right hon. Friend raises an important point. One of the actions that we are requiring water co...

Is it not obvious that all these years of privatisation, all the billions that have been paid out...

The original vision of water privatisation was that we would have publicly listed companies on th...

Sometimes we forget in this place how we ended up here. We ought to recognise the work of the Env...

I am a great believer in the role of Parliament and always have been. It has been a team effort. ...

It is pretty obvious to most of my constituents that water privatisation has been a miserable fai...

I agree, which is why the Government have changed our legal powers through the Environment Act 20...

Thank you for allowing the urgent question, Mr Speaker. My right hon. Friend will be aware that H...

This issue is linked to a separate but associated challenge around nutrient pollution. We publish...

The Secretary of State talks as if he is the first Conservative Secretary of State under this Gov...

I am afraid that the failure to address storm overflows goes back much further. This is a legacy ...

Constituents of mine along Rivadale View in Ilkley—indeed all of Ilkley and I—are getting fed up ...

As I said earlier, thanks to the evidence that has been gathered as a result of the new monitorin...

A couple of weeks ago, heavy rainfall in Sheffield resulted in sewage flowing into the garden of ...

The episode that the hon. Gentleman describes is probably linked to a failure somewhere in the se...

On the topic of dirty waterways, more and more constituents have been getting in contact with me ...

A number of agencies have a role in the situation that my hon. Friend describes. Typically, local...

This summer, people visiting east Devon had their health put at risk by greedy water companies. E...

As I said earlier, the issue that the hon. Gentleman raises has been addressed through the Enviro...

I commend the Secretary of State—a fellow Cornish MP—for being the first Secretary of State so fa...

My hon. Friend raises an important point. As I have said, we are bringing a record number of inve...

That is clearly not enough. This is a public health issue. Will the Minister consider making it a...

The real challenge is that the Environment Agency was not fully aware that these breaches were oc...

Does my right hon. Friend agree with me about the importance of having accurate facts and data in...

My hon. Friend raises a very important point: we need to have accurate data, which is why we have...

Water companies must clean up their act. Last year, Northumbrian Water allowed 615 days’ worth of...

As I have said, there has been an increase in the grant in aid for the Environment Agency since 2...

Contrary to the absolute nonsense peddled by the Opposition, it is this Government who are the fi...

As I said earlier, we have chosen to prioritise the most harmful sites and to prioritise them qui...

Our sewage pollution is packed with wet wipes, and wet wipes that are made of plastic just never ...

This Government have taken relentless action to remove plastics from the ocean, banning plastic s...

For decades—indeed since the Victorian era—sewage has been discharged into the River Chelt. That ...

It is important that we have worked closely with the water companies, many of which recognise tha...

It must be apparent from the response to the news of the combined sewer overflows that the public...

The Environment Act addresses those issues, and this Government and Conservative Members voted fo...

I am very proud to have the Rivers Usk and Wye in my constituency but, as has already been said, ...

My hon. Friend raises an important point. As I have said several times, we are taking clear and a...

Could the Secretary of State send a copy of the statement he has made today to those people who c...

That is very disappointing, if what the hon. Gentleman says is right. In my constituency I have r...

Countries around the world and other parts of the UK are battling historical infrastructure const...

It is not the case that nothing will be done until 2035. Indeed, investments are happening right ...

We have heard this afternoon of the ecological impact that many of these sewage discharges have o...

Obviously, the issue is devolved; the action we have taken is in respect of England and it is for...

My beautiful South West Hertfordshire constituency has the River Chess going through it. Jon Tyle...

My hon. Friend makes an important point. The Department is also working on a new horticulture str...

I did not realise that the Government’s plan for biodiversity net gain was simply to boost the le...

The hon. Lady is wrong. The environment targets that we are currently consulting on will set ambi...

My constituents in Mid Sussex have rightly been very concerned by social media’s inferring that t...

I have been grateful for today’s opportunity and I hope to do precisely that. We all know that on...

This was the first summer that Oxford West and Abingdon could enjoy the fact that the River Thame...

If the hon. Lady writes to us about her proposal, we will look at it. DEFRA has a target under th...

We need to establish the real scale of the problem. It has been estimated that providing a full s...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is important to take the right long-term decisions now on ...

I thank the Secretary of State for his answers. He has mentioned on three occasions the need for ...

As I said, responsibility for water quality is devolved, but of course we work closely with all t...

There are two pollution warnings on our beautiful beaches of Southend West today, because of the ...

Yes, I agree that dividend payments should be linked to compliance with permits and environmental...

Last question—the prize for perseverance and persistence goes to Anthony Browne.

The discharge of sewage into waterways, including the beautiful chalk streams of South Cambridges...

As I said, Ofwat is consulting on a package of measures, using the new powers that we have given ...