Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Untreated Sewage: Discharge (4 Mar 2021)
Feryal Clark: ...used for water sports by many clubs and schools, and it is much loved. Sadly, it is also one of the most polluted waterways in the UK; in 2019 alone, Thames Water spent over 1,100 hours discharging raw sewage into the River Lea. When will the Government finally hold water companies to account to protect our waterways properly?
Northern Ireland Assembly: Assembly Business: Public Petition: Adoption of Ravensbrae Waste Water Treatment Plant, Garrison (16 Feb 2021)
Jemma Dolan: ...a large majority of the residents and their concerns. We have a number of unadopted housing estates in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, but Ravensbrae is of particular concern due to the potential of raw sewage leaking into the world-famous Lough Melvin, which is internationally renowned for its unique range of plants, animals and fish. Lough Melvin is the only location in the world where the...
Rivers: Discharges (13 Jan 2021)
Liz Twist: ...link between the health of our local waterways and the health of our seas and oceans. Not far away from us, we have wonderful coastal beaches, so keeping our rivers clean and healthy, and free from sewage, is important to us. Last year, I was shocked to see, in information circulated by Surfers Against Sewage, the number of discharges of sewage into rivers all over the country through...
EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement - Motion to Take Note (8 Jan 2021)
Baroness Blower: ...the Prime Minister has a propensity for colourful and sometimes distinctly inappropriate turns of phrase, his assertion that, post Brexit, we will not be sending children up chimneys or pouring raw sewage on to beaches does not give confidence to those of us who are concerned about the future of environmental protections and workers' rights. It is of course the case that, over the years,...
Environment, food and rural affairs: Raw Sewage and Storm Water: Discharge into Waterways (26 Nov 2020)
Raw Sewage and Storm Water: Discharge into Waterways
Public Bill Committee: Environment Bill: Clause 76 - Drainage and sewerage management plans (17 Nov 2020)
Alan Whitehead: ...be to the benefit of the natural environment and its users as a result of changes in water companies' activities. I want to reinforce what the hon. Gentleman had to say about discharges of sewage and similar activities that have taken place over a number of years. He is right to state that there were more than 200,000 releases of raw sewage into rivers last year. That number slightly...
Waste Prevention Programme - Question (10 Nov 2020)
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: Water companies in England discharged raw sewage into rivers over 2,000 times last year. The chair of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee, Philip Dunne, has a Private Member's Bill and an amendment to the Environment Bill seeking to place a duty on water companies to end that filthy practice. Can the Minister explain why the Government are not supporting his efforts and whether he...
Business of the House (15 Oct 2020)
Natalie Elphicke: In last week's business questions, my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Rob Butler) raised questions about the flooding of raw sewage. This is an issue in many constituencies, including in my own in the historic town of Deal, which has seen inadequate management by Southern Water and ineffective oversight and regulation by Ofwat. Will my right hon. Friend provide time for a much-needed...
Planning and House Building (8 Oct 2020)
Claire Coutinho: ...second point is that it is mission critical that we address the very legitimate concerns of local residents. In the past 10 months alone in this job, I have heard from families in Smallfield facing raw sewage overspill inside their homes because the sewers are at capacity; from the Caterham Flood Action Group, which says that inadequate maintenance and overdevelopment has put existing...
Business of the House (8 Oct 2020)
Rob Butler: Last weekend, my constituency suffered one of the wettest October days since records began. Homes and businesses were flooded, and raw sewage engulfed gardens and even a school playground. Will my right hon. Friend advise me of the best parliamentary means to safeguard against similar events in future and to ensure that there are adequate flood defences, given that many thousands of houses...
River Pollution - Question (16 Sep 2020)
Lord Harries of Pentregarth: I thank the Minister for his Answer, but would he agree that the present situation is a total disgrace? More than 200,000 tonnes of raw sewage go into our rivers every year. Even in 2018 only 14% of our rivers passed as fit for purpose and they have probably got worse since then, and only three cases were taken to court in 2018, despite all this. Does he agree that there is a need for a much...
Northern Ireland Assembly: Adjournment: Recurring Flooding in the Newcastle Area (8 Sep 2020)
Roy Beggs: ...are destroyed; their lives are turned upside down; and they may not get back into their houses for months, even a year in some instances. It takes a lot of time to put right the wrong. Frequently, raw sewage is in the mix as well, and that causes much of the damage. It is important that we do all that we can to prevent this happening. In 2002, my colleague, Dermot Nesbitt, commented on the...
Housing Developments: West Sussex (7 Sep 2020)
Andrew Griffith: ...acts as a huge sponge, filling our chalk aquifers and preventing flooding of our coastal towns downstream. My constituents in Hassocks and Barnham have both had the disturbing experience of raw sewage emerging from the drains after planners failed to understand how the water table on a floodplain works. Secondly, the standard method algorithm is backward looking and self-perpetuating;...
Written Answers — Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Sewage: Rivers (13 Jul 2020)
Edward Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of water companies on ending the practice of overflow raw sewage being pumped into rivers; and if he will make a statement.
Water Industry (Specified Infrastructure Projects) (English Undertakers) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 - Motion to Approve (8 Jun 2020)
Lord Moynihan: ...scale into his design work on the diameter of the sewers. He worked on the basis of the densest population and what has best been described as, "the most generous allowance of per capita sewage production", before coming up with the diameter of pipe needed. Apocryphally, and probably literally, he added: "Well, we are only going to do this once and there is always the...
Written Answers — Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Sewage: Rivers (6 Mar 2020)
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will hold discussions with the Environmental Agency on reducing levels of raw sewage discharged into (a) main and (b) non-main rivers by water companies.
Environment Bill (26 Feb 2020)
Alex Sobel: ...what he said about that. Another area not covered in the Bill is beaches. Let us not forget that the UK was one of the slowest countries in the EU to clean up its beaches. We were still pumping raw sewage into the sea 20 years ago. Improvements to the quality of our natural water have come about as a result of the EU water framework and bathing water directives. How can we now, in the...
Flooding Update - Statement (25 Feb 2020)
Lord Fox: ...appalling state of the roads has been made much worse now that they are rivers. They are frankly little more than rubble in some cases. The flooding in people's homes has been exacerbated by the raw sewage that is coming out of poorly maintained sewers and drains. A big reconstruction job is needed. Will the Minister undertake to recognise the scale of reconstruction required if a place...
Written Answers — Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Sewage: Rivers (17 Feb 2020)
Baroness McIntosh of Pickering: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the environmental damage caused by spillages from combined sewer overflows releasing raw sewage into rivers; and what plans they have to prevent such spillages.
A Green Industrial Revolution (15 Jan 2020)
Steve Double: ...for the action that the Government have already taken to reduce the amount of plastic waste we produce, including the plastic bag charge, the ban on microbeads and the plan to ban plastic straws, but I want to press them on this, because we urgently need to come forward with a deposit return scheme for single-use plastic bottles. We have been talking about that for over two years, and that...