Coffey told to ‘stop passing the buck’ on pollution

Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey has been called out for “passing the buck” to a junior minister on water pollution issues.

In a House of Commons Defra question session, shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said Coffey must take personal responsibility for polluted waterways.

He praised water minister Rebecca Pow’s work in difficult circumstances, but reminded Coffey that “ultimately, those at the top take responsibility”.

“I have confidence in minister Pow and I believe she is doing a good job and making progress in difficult circumstances,” McMahon said. “Ultimately those at the top take responsibility and its high time for the secretary of state did just that.”

He asked Coffey to rate her government’s record on “ending the Tory sewage scandal”.

“Unlike the Labour government that denied there was a problem, this government has continued to act and will continue to do so,” Coffey retorted.

In the same session, Pow revealed that a list of designated bathing water sites will be published in May. At present there are 421 sites in England, 93% of which are classed as excellent or good.

Water companies are striving to ensure more people have access to designated bathing sites as part of river health ambitions.

Anglian and Severn Trent both committed to increasing the number of locations in their regions to enable 90% of customers to be within one hour of a place to swim. Yorkshire has invested £13 million in a river swimming spot in Ilkely.

Pow also stated that government was analysing responses to  Defra’s consultation to ban the use of plastic in wet wipes. Fleur Anderson, the MP who spearheaded a campaign against wipes, called out the slow action government had taken on eradicating this issue and suggested Defra should support Water UK’s Ban the Wipe campaign.