Steve Reed

Steve Reed

Labour (Co-op) — Streatham and Croydon North

Speaking in the House of Commons on 16 December 2024

Debate

Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords]

Contribution

That is an important point. Polluted water does not just damage people’s health; it damages the health of local economies as well, and the compensation will extend to businesses in a way that it previously did not. The Bill gives Ofwat legal powers to ban bonuses if water company executives fail to meet high standards. It will introduce stricter penalties, including imprisonment, when senior executives in water companies obstruct investigations by environmental regulators, and it includes provisions to allow automatic and severe fines to be imposed for wrongdoing. When increased costs are a result of penalties being issued by the regulators, for instance under the new automatic penalties regime, penalties will come out of water company profits and not from customers.

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