PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Water: EU Law (14 March 2016)

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.

Asked by:
Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

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.

	% water bodies at good or better now	% water bodies predicted to be achieve good by 2021		% water bodies with an objective of good or better
Rivers	17		20		74
Lakes	16		19		80
Coastal	44		48		71
Transitional (estuarine)	21		25		58
Groundwater	42		48		72
All waters	19		22		75

Answered by:
Rory Stewart (Independent)
17 March 2016