Speeches by Dollimore.

“When will that be published?”

“You currently investigate an overflow if they spill 60 times or more in a year. How did you pick that threshold?”

“Which is the year I was born.”

“Lots of numbers there, but in summary the system used dates from ’94, it is being updated, and work is beginning on that.”

“Severn Trent got a four-star rating in your 2024 Environmental Performance Review despite having over 60,000 sewage spills. Why do you not account for those in your performance reporting?”

“We would expect the chief executive of the Environment Agency in such a high-profile case—it has had huge media attention and has obviously been called out in the House of Lords report—to be across when inspectors were sent on site in this case to see what went wrong so we can stop it happening in other cases.”

“It is obviously a complex issue and is something that the Committee has looked into extensively and produced reports on. We have found conclusively that a lot of money has been taken out, and that investments committed to as part of price review cycles were then reneged on and not done even though the bills were put up…”

“Just lastly on this question about the water industry more broadly, I picked up in your earlier answers that you are quite defensive of the water industry and the sewage scandal in general about bills not having gone up enough. Do you see that as the main failing in the sewage scandal, or money taken out for bonuses an…”

“Many constituents would be quite shocked to hear that the first point at which you enter the sewage scandal is that bills have not been high enough because a lot of people feel—”

“You said earlier that bringing the regulator powers of Ofwat and the Environment Agency together under one more powerful regulator will certainly give you more teeth.”

“Just on that point, you say the public have not paid enough for water in their water bills. Would you not also feel it is the case that a huge amount of money has been siphoned off out of the water industry by shareholders paying dividends instead of investing in fixing these issues?”

“On sewer overflows specifically, it took the Environment Agency until 2023 to fully monitor all overflows. Why was that?”

“How much does a monitor cost?”

“It is highlighted by our colleagues in the House of Lords as a clear example of a failing, and obviously it is now going to cost the Environment Agency a lot more to clean it up. The woodland is pretty ruined as well.”

“In these cases, are you putting number plate cameras on the site?”

“It was six months of meetings between you and Ashford?”

“We are moving on to water pollution. I know we have covered some issues, but if we could please keep answers brief because we are tight on time for this session. The public are very angry about the situation with water pollution and the water companies. In previous evidence sessions, other witnesses have described the …”

“Does that figure come from the Environment Agency?”

“My question is regarding water testing and designated bathing sites. At the moment, you test from May to September, but there is a conversation about expanding this to all year round, given people now swim at all times of the year in those sites. Is that something you are looking at doing soon?”

“On designated bathing sites—particularly beaches—where an issue is flagged up, something that has been suggested by groups is that there is a uniform approach across the country to putting some signage up to say to people, “It’s dangerous to go in the sea today,” or, “It’s fine to go in the sea today.” Is that somethin…”