To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 8th September 2026, to Question UIN 26078, on Water Abstraction: Teddington, how many additional days would the proposed Teddington Direct River Abstraction add to London’s potable water supply in a very severe drought...

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 8th September 2026, to Question UIN 26078, on Water Abstraction: Teddington, how many additional days would the proposed Teddington Direct River Abstraction add to London’s potable water supply in a very severe drought...

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the ability of the proposed Teddington Direct River Abstraction Scheme to provide resilience in a 1:200 year drought event, in the context of the 1:40 drought event of 2022 seeing naturalised flows...

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the ability of the proposed Teddington Direct River Abstraction Scheme to provide resilience in a 1:200 year drought event, in the context of the 1:40 drought event of 2022 seeing naturalised flows...

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of (a) the daily quantity of raw water that the Teddington Direct River Abstraction Scheme would supply to reservoirs for onward transport to water treatment works, and (b) what the percentage of...

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of (a) the daily quantity of raw water that the Teddington Direct River Abstraction Scheme would supply to reservoirs for onward transport to water treatment works, and (b) what the percentage of...

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has the Government made of the potential impact of additional housing growth on chalk stream catchments in instances where wastewater treatment works are functioning at or near full capacity.

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has the Government made of the potential impact of additional housing growth on chalk stream catchments in instances where wastewater treatment works are functioning at or near full capacity.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the efficacy of an indirect potable reuse scheme which would take treated sewage from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works, process it using an advanced water recycling plant using reverse osmosis to remove PFAS,...

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the efficacy of an indirect potable reuse scheme which would take treated sewage from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works, process it using an advanced water recycling plant using reverse osmosis to remove PFAS,...

Agreed to on question.

Agreed to on question.

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the issue of sewage pollution in the River Otter, a river that flows through many of the Devon communities that I represent.

I should say at the outset that, this morning, I declined an offer of hospitality from the new chief executive of...

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the issue of sewage pollution in the River Otter, a river that flows through many of the Devon communities that I represent.

I should say at the outset that, this morning, I declined an offer of hospitality from the new chief executive of...

It is a pleasure to respond to this afternoon’s debate on behalf of my colleague the Water Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy), who is sadly unable to be with us because she is attending an international conference on the marine...

It is a pleasure to respond to this afternoon’s debate on behalf of my colleague the Water Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy), who is sadly unable to be with us because she is attending an international conference on the marine...

Lords statement regarding the position of Thames Water and the proposed recapitalisation package under consideration.

Lords statement regarding the position of Thames Water and the proposed recapitalisation package under consideration.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for answering on this Statement in your Lordships’ House. Thames Water has scandalised our country while asking its customers to pay more for less. For the sake of customers and taxpayers, we now need stability, not uncertainty. This Statement has not announced any change...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for answering on this Statement in your Lordships’ House. Thames Water has scandalised our country while asking its customers to pay more for less. For the sake of customers and taxpayers, we now need stability, not uncertainty. This Statement has not announced any change...

My Lords, I want to return to a point I raised in this House only last week when I asked whether the Government were delaying the clean water Bill pending resolution of the Thames Water situation. We were told then that the Government were ready to deploy a special administration...

My Lords, I want to return to a point I raised in this House only last week when I asked whether the Government were delaying the clean water Bill pending resolution of the Thames Water situation. We were told then that the Government were ready to deploy a special administration...

My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their questions on this Statement. There are quite a lot

of questions, so I will do my best to cover them but, as always, if I have missed anything out, we will get back to noble Lords.

First, it is important to point out...

My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their questions on this Statement. There are quite a lot

of questions, so I will do my best to cover them but, as always, if I have missed anything out, we will get back to noble Lords.

First, it is important to point out...

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that it is not necessarily just ownership of a water company that is the deciding factor, and there are other jurisdictions in which leakage and sewage going into rivers and the sea are problems. I think of Denmark, where the vast majority of...

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that it is not necessarily just ownership of a water company that is the deciding factor, and there are other jurisdictions in which leakage and sewage going into rivers and the sea are problems. I think of Denmark, where the vast majority of...

Clearly, we need to see the water Bill to see the detail on that and many other issues that people have a particular interest in. The Government are clear that we do not want to have overburdensome regulation. That is important. The regulator is there to help support the industry...

Clearly, we need to see the water Bill to see the detail on that and many other issues that people have a particular interest in. The Government are clear that we do not want to have overburdensome regulation. That is important. The regulator is there to help support the industry...

My Lords, the dire position of Thames Water is, above all, a regulatory failure. Does the Minister accept that Ofwat’s record as a regulator has been absolutely woeful? Above all, it failed to require water companies to invest over a long period of time in appropriate infrastructure of all kinds.

My Lords, the dire position of Thames Water is, above all, a regulatory failure. Does the Minister accept that Ofwat’s record as a regulator has been absolutely woeful? Above all, it failed to require water companies to invest over a long period of time in appropriate infrastructure of all kinds.

I suggest to the noble Lord that the fact that we are talking about removing Ofwat and bringing in a single, more powerful regulator in the water Bill answers his question. It is not just about who the regulator is but about what the regulator’s priorities are: what is it...

I suggest to the noble Lord that the fact that we are talking about removing Ofwat and bringing in a single, more powerful regulator in the water Bill answers his question. It is not just about who the regulator is but about what the regulator’s priorities are: what is it...

My Lords, when the water industry was privatised over 30 years ago, it was almost entirely debt-free. Since then, as the Minister said, debt has been racked up. The Minister said that there will be provisions in the new water Bill for creating a new regulator. Further to the previous...

My Lords, when the water industry was privatised over 30 years ago, it was almost entirely debt-free. Since then, as the Minister said, debt has been racked up. The Minister said that there will be provisions in the new water Bill for creating a new regulator. Further to the previous...

The detail of the regulator will be in the new Bill. The noble Lord has mentioned this to me a number of times. That companies have been allowed to generate debt to use the money has been a cause of many of the difficulties that we see today. The way...

The detail of the regulator will be in the new Bill. The noble Lord has mentioned this to me a number of times. That companies have been allowed to generate debt to use the money has been a cause of many of the difficulties that we see today. The way...

My Lords, I declare my interest as set out in the register. Thames Water bills went up around 40% to pay for the current AMP cycle. However, the present company structure means that it will not be able to make the investment to meet the targets under the present AMP...

My Lords, I declare my interest as set out in the register. Thames Water bills went up around 40% to pay for the current AMP cycle. However, the present company structure means that it will not be able to make the investment to meet the targets under the present AMP...

My understanding is that that is not the assessment by Ofwat at the current time. However, the noble Lord makes some good points. I am sure that the Secretary of State and the Minister for Water meet regularly with Ofwat. We are watching very closely for when or if there...

My understanding is that that is not the assessment by Ofwat at the current time. However, the noble Lord makes some good points. I am sure that the Secretary of State and the Minister for Water meet regularly with Ofwat. We are watching very closely for when or if there...