Lucy Powell

I see trying to give the House as much forward business and as many recess dates as possible in order to provide certainty as a key performance indicator, and I thank the hon. Lady for her comments in that regard. I am very sorry to hear about the murder in the hon. Lady’s constituency, and I join her in thanking all the services—the police, the NHS and others—that do such an amazing job when it comes to these awful incidents. The hon. Lady rightly raised the truly appalling scandal of discharges into Windermere. As a northerner, I am a frequent visitor to the Lake District, and I am aware of its beauty and its importance not only as a tourist attraction but as a habitat for wildlife. The Government have taken rapid action in dealing with our water bosses and cleaning up our waterways. In his first week in the job, the Environment Secretary ringfenced infrastructure spending and empowered customers to hold bosses to account, and the Water (Special Measures) Bill is currently in the House of Lords and will come to this House soon. However, that is not all we have done: we have also launched a full review of water reform to ensure that we have the governance right and can take appropriate action, including sanctions, to prevent these discharges from happening again.