Water Framework Directive Regulations and River Basin Management Planning

Today the Government are laying before the House our full response to the Office for Environmental Protection’s review of the implementation of the water framework directive regulations and river basin management planning.

The Government welcome the OEP’s recommendations and accept its key conclusions that not enough progress has been made by previous Governments to improve the water environment and meet the WFD objective to restore 75% of water bodies to good ecological status or good ecological potential. We face a major challenge in achieving these objectives due to years of underinvestment and insufficient action.

This Government are committed to taking action to accelerate progress on improving the water environment. There are systemic issues that require urgent reform of our water system. The Government will set out over the coming months their plans to fundamentally transform how our water system works and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good. This will include a review of the framework that underpins our water sector, to ensure it delivers long-term stability, and reflects the needs of customers and the environment. We expect that the OEP’s review of the WFD will be an important contribution to inform the review.

The Government response will be available on gov.uk.

[HCWS86]