Contributions
1,165 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDSewage PollutionMy hon. Friend raises an important point. We are mindful of the impacts on bills. The average increase in bills with the measures we outlined—the £56 billion package—will be about…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionThe next pricing review period starts in 2025, which is not soon enough for me. That is why I said to Ofwat, and to the water companies, that they should bring forward any…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionWe also published and laid before the House yesterday a report required under the Act on the feasibility of removing the storm overflows altogether. It is the case that the cost…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionThe hon. Gentleman has raised this issue before and there was a tragic case of large numbers of crabs, in particular, being washed up on beaches in his constituency. We ordered an…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionWe have set an important example with the storm overflow discharge reduction plan that we have published. We have committed to the investment and we are bringing record numbers of…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionAs a Cornish MP, I have long been aware of the challenges created for our aquatic environment by storm overflows. When I became Secretary of State in February 2020, I instructed…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionIt is important to distinguish between the failure of water companies to abide by their permit conditions, which is an issue and is the reason for the Environment Agency bringing…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionThe Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) has met South West Water to discuss some…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionAs I said, we have brought many prosecutions since 2015 and levied fines of about £140 million on the industry. In one case, that precipitated a change in ownership of a water…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionMy hon. Friend raises an important point. As I said in my statement, we are now requiring water companies to make available to the Environment Agency all the discharge data from…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionI hope I have made it clear that we are not content with criminal behaviour, which is precisely why we are bringing record numbers of prosecutions, having discovered a problem as…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionI am the first Secretary of State ever to publish a plan such as this. One of my first acts as Secretary of State in 2020 was to instruct officials to change the strategic policy…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionI absolutely give my hon. Friend that assurance. Our discharge reduction plan absolutely prioritises bathing waters in those near-term investments.06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionI agree, which is why the Government have changed our legal powers through the Environment Act 2021 to strengthen the regulation, and to require improved monitoring. On the basis…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionI am a great believer in the role of Parliament and always have been. It has been a team effort. When I became Secretary of State, I prioritised this long before it was an issue…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionAs I said earlier, thanks to the evidence that has been gathered as a result of the new monitoring that we required, we are now bringing investigations into around 2,200 sewage…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionThe episode that the hon. Gentleman describes is probably linked to a failure somewhere in the sewage infrastructure rather than storm overflows per se, and that is a slightly…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionI am afraid that the failure to address storm overflows goes back much further. This is a legacy of the Victorian infrastructure that we have in place, and no Government down the…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionA number of agencies have a role in the situation that my hon. Friend describes. Typically, local authorities are responsible for most of the street drainage infrastructure and…06 Sept 2022HANSARDSewage PollutionMy hon. Friend raises a very important point: we need to have accurate data, which is why we have required new monitoring to be put in place and new disclosures to be made by…06 Sept 2022