Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Conclusion 2
Fourth Report - Water quality in rivers
Published 13 Jan 2022
Paragraph 39
Environmental Audit Committee Water Quality in Rivers All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
A ‘chemical cocktail’ of sewage, agricultural waste, plastic and persistent chemicals is polluting rivers. River water quality has improved by some measures in recent decades, but in others it appears to be getting worse. The establishment of a complete overview of the health of rivers in England and the pollution affecting them is hampered by outdated, underfunded and inadequate monitoring regimes. Many harmful pollutants are not routinely monitored, and the Environment Agency has reduced the number of monitoring sites.
From: Environmental Audit Committee, Fourth Report - Water quality in rivers (HC 74), paragraph 39, 13 January 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 16 May 2022 (deadline 13 March 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the report and says it agrees there is "more to do", accepting many recommendations, declining some, and deferring others to consultations, reviews and future plans.
- On sewage monitoring, it "does not accept" the recommendation to install volume monitors at all overflow points, saying volume measurement is "limited by technical feasibility and cost" and "requires further consideration".
- It "does not agree" that planning authorities should adopt a broad policy against farming infrastructure, and "does not agree" that permitting is "normally an appropriate risk management response" for highway drains.
- On highways outfalls, National Highways "agrees to set out its plans" by the end of the 2022/23 financial year for how high-risk locations could be mitigated by 2030, but says it is "not possible to make a commitment" on funding at this time.
- On sentencing for water pollution offences, the independent Sentencing Council "will consider the recommendation in due course", and any changes to guidelines would be "subject to public consultation".