Water: Sewage
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have died from illness caused by exposure to sewage spills in rivers and seas by NHS Trust in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Mrs Sharon Hodgson
Illnesses often have multiple possible sources, so individual cases cannot usually be attributed to a specific cause unless they are part of an epidemiologically confirmed outbreak. When outbreaks are identified, investigations assess potential sources such as lake or seawater exposure.
Since 2020, no confirmed gastrointestinal outbreaks reported to the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) have been directly attributed to river or seawater exposure. Annual outbreak data is published by the UKHSA, with the 2025 report expected in Summer 2026.
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