On his first day in office the newly appointed environment secretary ordered water company chief executives to submit plans to make “significant improvements” to reduce sewage discharged into waterways within two weeks.

Ranil Jayawardena said his message to sector heads had been that the current approach is “not good enough”.

Water companies given two week deadline by government to show how they will stop sewage being pumped into rivers and beaches.

The Minister’s statement came following a question in Parliament from Kate Osborne, MP, who asked “What steps he is taking to ensure that untreated sewage is not discharged into rivers, inland waterways and the sea.”

Mr Jayawardena replied by saying “The volume of sewage spewed out by water companies is completely unacceptable, and the public have rightly shown their outrage. Yesterday, in my first day in office, I told water chief executives that it is not good enough, and I have instructed them to write to me formally by 21 September with a plan for how they will make significant improvements.

The Minister went on to say that “I also met the Environment Agency and Ofwat, and I told them that they should use every enforcement power available to them to make sure that there is compliance. I will not hesitate to take further action if I do not see the pace of change that this House expects.”

Shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon later called for stronger sanctions to punish water bosses who do not prevent sewage dumping. He told the Commons that “over the summer, the Government allowed water bosses to dump sewage on 90 beaches”, adding: “Without tougher penalties in place to make sure that it hits the bottom line, they will not change their behaviour, and it’s got to include tougher sanctions including prison sentences.”

The statement in Parliament follows claim and counter-claim over the summer with regard to sewage pollution and sewer outfalls, with the Liberal Democrats stating that there are failures in monitoring as well as impacts on shellfish.

The statement by the Defra Minister was covered widely, including ENDSreport, Utility Week [paywalls] and the Daily Mail. The statement in Parliament can be found in Hansard here.