My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 4, so ably moved by the noble Duke, the Duke of Wellington, and congratulate him on the work he has been doing on this important issue. I do not have significant amounts to add, but I believe that, as my noble friend the Minister said, this is a chance to radically improve environmental policy. In particular, the areas outlined in the Bill, such as air quality and water per se, could be enhanced by adding the specific requirement to take account of improvements urgently needed to water quality.
The Government have already said that they proposed to publish a plan by September 2020 to reduce sewage discharges into our rivers and waterways. I am obviously supportive of that and of placing a duty on water companies to publish annual data on storm overflows and set legally binding targets for water quality. However, it is likely that those issues will be dealt with in a more long-term timeframe than one might have hoped, given this landmark Bill.
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I particularly point to the issue of human health, as well as the health of aquatic life, which has been so endangered by the ongoing discharge of partially treated and untreated sewage into our waterways. I believe that every few days, if not every day, some kind of discharge could pose a threat to those who might wish to swim in or use our waterways, which are a wonderful feature of our country.
I hope that my noble friend the Minister will agree to meet groups of interested Peers from across the House, who would like to understand better how we might be able to enhance water quality more rapidly and to discuss the responsibility of water companies themselves to pay for such improvements—and not just to report or reduce such discharges but to eliminate them altogether.
We will return to these issues later in Committee, but I should be grateful if my noble friend would confirm that he would be willing, over the course of Committee and before Report, to have a detailed discussion on what progress we might make to protect those who want to enjoy swimming in our rivers and children who may wish to play in them. I would like to discuss how we can make sure that rivers are fit for human and aquatic life in the future, and, as we have an opportunity to set our own regulations, to make sure that they are strengthened in practical ways that will identify improvements in the measurement and management of the quality of our water.