Tomorrow, Wednesday 9 October shortly after 3.30pm, the Water
(Special Measures) Bill will have its second reading in the House
of Lords.
This represents a key milestone in the passage of this landmark
legislation through parliament to crack down on water bosses for
polluting our rivers, lakes and seas. It will be the first
opportunity for members of the Lords to debate the key proposals
set out in the Bill ahead of the Committee Stage.
will begin the session with
a speech to the house, setting out how the Bill will give
regulators new powers to take tougher and faster action to crack
down on water companies damaging the environment and failing
their customers.
This follows the Bill's introduction into Parliament on 4
September and the Secretary of State's speech announcing a
comprehensive review of the sector.
The
Bill delivers on the government's
manifesto pledges to clean up the water sector. It
will:
- significantly increase the ability of the Environment Agency
to bring forward criminal charges including up to two years
imprisonment against law-breaking water executives.
- ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses if they fail to
meet high standards to protect the environment, their consumers
and their company's finances.
- ensure severe and automatic fines for a range of offences,
including allowing regulators to issue penalties more quickly,
without having to direct resources to lengthy investigations.
- require independent monitoring of every sewage outlet, with
water companies having to publish real-time data for all
emergency overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within
an hour of the initial spill.
The Government will also carry out a review to
fundamentally transform how our water system works and
clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good, with further
information to follow later in the autumn.
Below is a statement from the Environment Secretary
for use on the record. This is strictly under embargo to 00:01
Wednesday 9 October:
Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs said:
“The public are furious that in 21st century Britain, record
levels of sewage are being pumped into our rivers, lakes and
seas. After years of failure, our waterways are now in an
unacceptable state. That is why we are taking immediate action to
end the disgraceful behaviour of water companies and their
bosses.
“Under this Government, if water executives continue breaking the
law, they could end up in the dock and face prison time.
“This Bill is a major step forward in our wider reform to fix the
broken water system and I am pleased to see it debated today -
but this is just the start. We will outline further legislation
to fundamentally transform how the water industry is run, and
speed up the delivery of infrastructure upgrades to our sewage
infrastructure to and clean up our waterways for
good.”
