Member

I turn to Amendment 72, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, and introduced by the noble Earl, Lord Russell. In his introduction to this amendment, the noble Earl made some really important points about fresh water and maintaining quality and improvements through the Bill. On his questions about the water restoration fund, it was launched in April 2024 to use money from water company fines and penalties for environmental improvements. Applications for funding are being reviewed. Clearly, we have been waiting for the spending review before moving forward with this, but we now have the headline figures agreed, which means we can now work through the exact details. We will be able to provide more information once that work has been finalised, but at least now we can start to move forward.