Water: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to move away from multi-year averages and adopt a more real-time approach to reporting bathing-water quality data.
Answered by Emma Hardy
On 28 October 2025, the Department laid before Parliament an SI which incorporates reforms to modernise the Bathing Water Regulations. Core reform 3, due to come into force 21 November, introduces the discretion to determine a different bathing season for a site where appropriate, enabling flexible, locally tailored bathing seasons that reflect its use.
The Environment Agency (EA) sample throughout the season, and data is published regularly on the EA’s Swimfo bathing waters website ensuring the public can make an informed decision before entering the water. Where bathing water quality is not consistently excellent the EA makes pollution risk forecasts each day using an analysis of previous samples and notifies the public through the Swimfo website and on signage at the site in this event.
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