Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the proportion of rivers, lakes, coastal and ground waters in the UK that (a) are compliant with the EU Water Framework Directive and (b) will be so compliant by 2020; and when she expects all UK waters to achieve good status.

Rory Stewart

The principle environmental objective of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is to protect and enhance all bodies of surface and groundwater so as to prevent deterioration, with the aim of achieving good status for all water bodies by December 2015. The WFD provides exemptions which allow the deadline to be extended to 2021 or 2027 and, in some cases, a less stringent objective to be set, for reasons of disproportionate cost or technical feasibility.

Implementation of the WFD in the UK is a devolved matter. In England, 19% of water bodies are currently good status or better, 22% are predicted to achieve good status or better by 2021, and 75% of all water bodies have an objective of good or better status.

The breakdown by water category is detailed in the table below.

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