Not one English river is in a healthy condition, with none meeting good chemical standards and only 14 per cent meeting good ecological standards. It is a shameful record that England has the worst river quality in Europe.

I have looked into this issue in detail in my role as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. The committee looked into how the Government uses regulation to achieve its policy objectives. We questioned representatives from the Environment Agency on how pollution is managed in rivers such as the River Lea. As I pointed out in the meeting, despite fines given to water companies, sewage dumping is still occurring far too often. See question six onwards in the transcript here. 

I wrote to the Minister for Nature Recovery and the Domestic Environment to press the Government to do more to hold water companies to account. Click the pdf below to read the response in full.