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Groundwater (England and Wales) Regulations 2009

My Lords, I rise on behalf of the Liberal Democrats to give a general welcome to these regulations, which seek to transpose the groundwater directive of 2006. There was an obligation to transpose it by 16 January this year, so we are only 10 months late. By the normal standards of these things, perhaps I should congratulate the Government on being only some months late when compared with the years that it can sometimes take to do these things. Why it always takes so long is a mystery buried in the depths of Whitehall but at least this is being dealt with in the same calendar year, so I offer the Government some gentle congratulations. As the Minister said, these regulations will not have a long life and will be absorbed into the environmental permitting regulations at some time in 2010. Perhaps the Minister will confirm that. As they will simply be absorbed, that will not make much difference. By and large, these are sensible regulations that transpose a sensible directive and, in that respect, we give them a general welcome. The noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, spoke on the two aspects that require further probing. The first is the review of existing authorisations and the second is the issue of septic tanks and similar devices that lead to small-scale soakaways to which the regulations will apply from the beginning of January 2012. On the review, the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, previously asked a Question of the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, who told him that there are "upward of"—I presume that that means more than—20,000 authorisations at the moment. I am not clear about what the procedure will be for the review of these authorisations. Paragraph 12(2) of the order states: ""All permits granted before the coming into force of these Regulations must be reviewed before 22nd December 2012"." What is a review? Will it be new or merely a desk review looking at regulations which, given the risk-based assessment that the Minister said would take place, will require further detailed investigation, while the majority will be put on the desk pile for regulations that do not need any change? Can the Minister explain exactly how this review will take place? This relates to what the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, said about resources. The figure of 20,000 is a lot, and if many of those authorisations are to be reviewed in detail, what resources will be involved? Will the Environment Agency have sufficient finance and manpower to carry out the task? The noble Lord asked many detailed questions about septic tanks, some of which I was going to ask. I shall not go into detail on those because there is no point repeating what he said. Not all septic tanks will be affected. Some, especially those in urban areas, are emptied by a vehicle that comes around and takes away the contents. However, septic tanks with a soakaway will be affected in just over two years’ time. The fundamental questions are, first, does the Minister know how many of these installations there are around the country and, therefore, what the scale of the task is and, secondly, will the Environment Agency really have the resources to carry out the review, or will it rely on existing approvals and consents at a local level of the type that the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, mentioned? In most cases, these soakaways do not cause a problem. They work—they clearly soak away—and, presumably, they are absorbed within the fairly immediate locality as biological processes deal with them over time so they do not get down into serious groundwater. There are a number of instances, however, where they cause serious problems. How is the Environment Agency going to determine which ones it needs to look at seriously? How will it separate the wheat from the chaff? The wheat will be a small proportion of the total, but there are problems that need to be looked at nevertheless. Will it be a matter of relying on complaints? If so, complaints from whom—from nearby residents, owners of land or local authorities? Or will it simply apply throughout the whole lot? Presumably, it would take a long time to deal with them all. These are serious issues, even though they are small-scale and local. On the one hand, we want problems tackled properly where they exist; on the other hand, in the majority of cases where there are not serious problems, we do not want a huge new tier of regulation and bureaucracy where it is not necessary. What is the answer to this conundrum? I shall be interested to hear what the Minister has to say about it. My final question is on the draft guidance that the Government intend to issue to the Environment Agency, and which it is going to consult on. What main issues will the guidance cover? As I said at the beginning, we welcome these regulations and congratulate the Government on not being too late in bringing them forward.