§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the record of compliance of sewage works with their discharge consents in(a) 1992–93 and (b) 1993–94.
§ Mr. AtkinsThe National Rivers Authority has reported that in 1992 95 per cent. of the water company sewage treatment works it monitored complied with their discharge consent standards, and that in 1993, the figure was 93 per cent. Because of new reporting procedures introduced by the NRA, the information for 1993 is not directly comparable with earlier statistics. The underlying trend is one of significant improvements in performance: 533W only 83 per cent. of sewage works complied in 1988. This reflects the water industry's substantial investment programmes since privatisation.