The House of Lords will hold a formal debate on the HoL Industry and Regulators Committee report: 'The affluent and the effluent: cleaning up failures in water and sewage regulation' next week on Monday 16th October.
The Committee warned in the report, which was published in March, that under investment, insufficient government strategy, and inadequate co-ordination had resulted in a failure to “treat water with the care and importance it deserves” and that a “slew of failures of regulators, water companies and Government leave public and environment in the mire.”
During its investigation, the Committee took evidence from Thérèse Coffey, Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, regulators, water company CEOs, consumer groups, and industry and investment experts.
The Committee subsequently held a follow up inquiry in June to take evidence from Water UK and National Infrastructure Commission and took further evidence in July from Defra Minister, Rebecca Pow MP.
In its formal response to the report, the Government rejected a call from the Committee to strengthen the Strategic Policy Statement for Ofwat and also declined to introduce a single social tariff.
Last month the Office for Environmental Protection separately identified possible failures to comply with environmental law by the Defra, the Environment Agency and Ofwat in relation to the regulation of combined sewer overflows (CSOs).
Chair of the Committee Labour peer Lord Hollick will open the debate, which is expected to start at around 4pm on Monday 16th March – the Parliamentary website list 16 peers who are expected to speak in the debate.
Click here to watch the debate live on Parliamentary TV. The debate will be preceded by debates on other topics in the session, which starts at 2.30pm.
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