§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how the monitoring arrangements for water quality will be strengthened and clarified in the forthcoming legislation to privatise the water industry.
§ Mr. MoynihanMonitoring of the quality of surface and underground waters will be a statutory duty of the National Rivers Authority, which will also be required to give effect to statutory quality objectives and standards for these waters. This will entail the use of more systematic and consistent sampling regimes, which are currently being developed.
In the case of drinking water supplies, regulations will be made fully incorporating into United Kingdom law the provisions of the EC drinking water directive and specifying the frequency of monitoring for individual parameters and the sampling locations.