Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances 2024-12-19
2024-12-19
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
The Drinking Water Inspectorate requires water companies to monitor, assess, and report on PFAS risks. There are concerns about the adequacy of this approach.
Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of putting the Drinking Water Inspectorate's guidance on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances on a statutory footing.
I thank the hon. Lady for raising this important issue. The Drinking Water Inspectorate requires water companies to monitor, assess and report on the risks from PFAS. We are aware of concerns relating to that, and officials are working on it.
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Assessment & feedback
The specific ask about statutory footing was not addressed.
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
There are concerns about the impact of PFAS in drinking water, with other regions like Scotland, EU, and US taking statutory measures.
Happy Christmas, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister for her answer and for offering me a meeting on this topic earlier this week—I look forward to pursuing it with her. Given the wealth of authoritative evidence on the harmful impact on human health of PFAS in our drinking water, and that Scotland, the European Union and the United States have all put PFAS guidance on a statutory footing, why do this Government appear to have no plans to do the same for England and Wales? Will the Minister consider amending the Water (Special Measures) Bill to that end?
As I have mentioned, this is an important issue, and I look forward to discussing it in more detail. Work to assess the risks of PFAS, and to inform policy and regulatory approaches—including banning or highly restricting certain chemicals and addressing issues caused by their historical use—is continuing.
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Assessment & feedback
The specific ask about statutory measures was not directly addressed.
Response accuracy