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Sewage: Bournemouth West

Answer

The Secretary of State recently met with water company bosses, including Wessex Water, to make it clear that water firms will be held accountable for their performance for customers and the environment. During the meeting, water bosses signed up to the Government’s initial package of reforms to reduce sewage pollution and attract investment to upgrade infrastructure.

The Government also announced a new Water (Special Measures) Bill, which will turn around the performance of water companies, in the King’s Speech. The Bill will strengthen regulation, give the water regulator new powers to ban the payment of bonuses if environmental standards are not met and increase accountability for water executives. These are the first critical steps in enabling a long-term and transformative reset of the entire water sector.

I would also refer the hon. Member to the Written Statement made by the Secretary of State on 18 July, HCWS3.

There is only one permitted discharge into the sea within the area of the Bournemouth West constituency, which is a water industry pumping station at Pier Approach. The discharge for this pumping station is through a pipe out to sea and should only operate during storm conditions or in an emergency. With respect to Bournemouth, the Environment Agency will publish the 2024 Event Duration Monitoring data, showing how long and how often storm overflows have been used, in March 2025. The data for previous years is available here. Wessex Water now publishes its spill data in near-real time online and this can be viewed here.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

2651

Session

2024-26

Related items

First steps to reform water sector
Thursday, 18 July 2024
Written statements
House of Commons

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Pollution Sewage Wessex Water Bournemouth West

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk