Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Bathing Waters: Pollution

Thursday 4 September 2025 · 4 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Patrick Hurley (Southport) inquired about a 50 million investment to improve Southport's waste water treatment works.
  • Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) highlighted the need to address agricultural pollution alongside sewage pollution to tackle water quality issues.
  • Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) welcomed the mandatory reporting of dry-day spills but criticized South West Water's poor track record.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Patrick Hurley Lab Southport
Environment
Context

Southport's waste water treatment works received a £50 million investment to reduce sewage overflows. The announcement followed years of neglect under the previous government.

Question

Over the summer, we saw the announcement of a £50 million investment into Southport’s waste water treatment works to reduce the number of sewage overflows to just three per bathing season, allowing Southport to once again become the jewel in the crown of the north-west coast. Does the Minister agree that that level of investment is very much needed after more than a decade of Tory neglect of our waterways, and that it shows the difference a town can see when it has a Labour MP, a Labour council, a Labour metro mayor and a Labour Government here in Westminster?

Answer from The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)

Unsurprisingly, I could not agree more. I thank my hon. Friend for his work to champion his community here in Parliament. The previous Government oversaw record levels of sewage pollution in our rivers, lakes and seas, but this Government have secured £104 billion of private investment to upgrade crumbling pipes and halve sewage pollution by 2030, so that communities can once again take pride in their rivers, lakes and seas.

Answered
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Q2 Ellie Chowns Green North Herefordshire
Agriculture & Rural Affairs Environment
Context

Ellie Chowns highlighted the need to address agricultural pollution along with sewage pollution. She mentioned a landscape recovery project that aims at reducing pollution, restoring nature, and producing quality food.

Question

As I have reminded Ministers on a number of occasions, tackling pollution in our rivers and seas requires us to address agricultural pollution as well as sewage pollution. I am disappointed not to hear the Minister mention that, but I like to come with solutions. I recently visited the Wyescapes landscape recovery project in my constituency, which is an innovative farmer-led project of 49 farmers protecting soil, reducing pollution, restoring nature and producing great-quality food. Will the Minister, or perhaps her colleague the Farming Minister, come to visit this innovative project to see how we can tackle river pollution and protect nature and food production?

Answer from The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)

The hon. Lady raises a really important point. Agricultural pollution is incredibly serious, and this Government recognise that. We have updated the DEFRA statutory guidance for the farming rules for water, and I recently hosted a roundtable with farmers, environmental organisations and the water industry to bring the voices of stakeholders to the fore. We have committed to including a new regional element in the new regulator to ensure greater involvement in water planning. By moving to a catchment-based model for water systems planning, we can tackle all sources of pollution entering the waterways, including agricultural pollution.<br/><br/>I have a very keen interest in the River Wye; I went to see it last year, and it is absolutely beautiful. The hon. Lady will be well aware of the research project with £1 million of funding that we announced to look into all sources of pollution and what we can do to clean up this beautiful place in our country.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister did not directly commit to visiting the Wyescapes landscape recovery project but acknowledged agricultural pollution's importance and shared initiatives addressing it.

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Q3 Noah Law Lab St Austell and Newquay
Environment
Context

South West Water is among the worst offenders on dry-day spills. The issue of mandatory reporting has been highlighted by Noah Law.

Question

I welcome the fact that the rolling reporting of dry-day spills has become mandatory under our Government, but it has unfortunately laid bare the track record of South West Water, which is among the worst offenders on dry-day spills. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that companies such as South West Water feel the full force of the law with regard to dry-day spills?

Answer from The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to be angry about the state in which our rivers, lakes and seas have been left, and I recognise the trouble that a failing water company causes for his constituency. That is why we have committed to resetting, reforming and revolutionising the water sector and why we are establishing a new, single and powerful regulator that can fully hold all companies to account and ensure that they are delivering for the British people and cleaning up our waterways for good.

Answered
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Q4 Helen Morgan Lib Dem North Shropshire
Agriculture & Rural Affairs Environment
Context

Chicken manure run-off is a problem in North Shropshire's bathing waters and rivers. Helen Morgan highlighted new technologies from Harper Adams University and LOHAS Fertiliser that could help mitigate this issue.

Question

Run-off from chicken manure is a particular problem in the bathing waters and rivers in Shropshire. I have visited both Harper Adams University and LOHAS Fertiliser in my constituency, which have great new technologies to deal with chicken manure, stabilise it and moving that great fertiliser to other parts of the country where it causes fewer problems. However, they cannot scale up, so what steps is the Minister taking to enable the new technologies that could deal with some of these problems to be scaled up and used across the country?

Answer from The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)

The hon. Lady raises a really interesting point—it is perhaps worrying how interested I am getting in what we can do with manure and human waste to provide organic fertiliser in our country. She has given a brilliant example of what can be done, and I will make sure that the Minister who is responsible for the circular economy, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry East (Mary Creagh), gets to hear about it and learn more.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister did not directly commit to enabling new technologies but expressed interest in learning more about them.

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