UK Parliament / Open data

Sewage Pollution

Proceeding contribution from George Eustice (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 6 September 2022. It occurred during Urgent question on Sewage Pollution.

The hon. Gentleman’s contribution is characteristically political—[Interruption.] Let me say that this is the first Government to increase monitoring so that we knew there was a problem. This is the first Government to set out a £56 billion investment plan to tackle this. No previous Government, not even Labour Governments, ever prioritised this issue in the way that we have. The hon. Gentleman mentions cuts to the Environment Agency budget, but he misunderstands how that budget works. The cost of monitoring water companies’ permits for the management of combined storm overflows is cost-recovered through the permit,

and there have been no cuts to that. They can to recover those costs, and we have increased the grant in aid budget to enable them to do further enforcement action. That is why we have seen record numbers of prosecutions being brought under this Government’s watch.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
719 c114 
Session
2022-23
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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