Clause 76 - Drainage and sewerage management plans

Part of Environment Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:30 am on 17 November 2020.

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Photo of Rebecca Pow Rebecca Pow The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 10:30, 17 November 2020

I thank the hon. Member for Southampton, Test for the amendment. It is amazing that we have managed to get him excited—for me, that is a massive milestone in the Bill’s passage. I hope he does not mind my saying that.

I understand that the intention behind the amendment is to give certainty that Ministers will pass secondary legislation about the consultations to be carried out by sewerage undertakers on their drainage and sewerage management plans. Under proposed new section 94A of the Water Industry Act 1991, sewerage undertakers will have a duty to prepare drainage and sewerage management plans. Ministers understand that sewerage undertakers need to know the procedural requirements for fulfilling their duties in good time. Ministers require flexibility on when and how the provision is given effect so that procedural requirements for plans remain proportionate and current.

The UK Government intend to use the delegated powers for drainage and sewage management plans in a similar way to the approach used for water resources management planning, to which I referred earlier. The Water Resources Management Plan Regulations 2007 and the Drought Plan Regulations 2005 were made in that way. The existing powers have been used as needed. Those are good examples of dealing with procedural matters such as around the consultation to be carried out.

The hon. Member for Putney touched on the term, “sewerage system”. I want to pinpoint that it is defined in the Water Industry Act 1991 in a way that covers all relevant aspects of waste water. She also spoke about the Thames. I have been down the Thames Tideway—a huge channel down which one can go—and it is a fantastic project that will make a difference to the Thames river water.

Sewerage undertakers are currently developing the first tranche of plans on a non-statutory basis to a five-year cycle. Ministers in England, when exercising the powers, will therefore be mindful of when to introduce the procedural requirements so as not to cause unnecessary disruption—lots of them are in the middle of those, and a great deal of work has gone on—to the development of sewerage undertaker plans. On those grounds, I ask the hon. Member for Southampton, Test to withdraw his amendment.