Part of Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 2:15 pm on 14 January 2025.
I will quickly note the constructive and nice way in which the hon. Member for Epping Forest is taking part in these debates. I also want to come up with more dentistry analogies, so I will be thinking of those as we keep going.
The Bill will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry. In line with that, it will introduce many measures to disincentivise pollution. For example, it will provide Ofwat with legal powers to ban bonuses where companies fail to meet standards on environmental performance, financial resilience, customer outcomes or criminal liability. The Bill will also enable automatic and severe fines, allowing regulators to take swift action. It will enable the public to hold companies to account through a new requirement for water companies to produce annual reports on pollution incident reduction. Collectively, these measures will strengthen enforcement, improve transparency and disincentivise water company pollution.
The Committee and the wider public are able to see a more detailed assessment of the expected impact of the Bill via the published impact assessment. I reassure the Committee that my Department is committed to post-legislative scrutiny of primary legislation. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will work with the cross-party Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to assess the impacts of the Act three to five years after Royal Assent as part of the standard practice for all new legislation. I welcome that scrutiny.
The Government therefore cannot accept new clause 6. Although we agree on the importance of understanding the impact of the Bill on environmental pollution, adding further reporting requirements to the Bill would be duplicative and unnecessary.