Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Rivers (21st June 2011)
Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to revise river management plans; and what assessment she has made of the compliance of those plans with the EU Water Framework Directive.
Richard Benyon (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Natural Environment and Fisheries), Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Newbury, Conservative)
The first river basin management plans were published in December 2009 as required by the water framework directive. These are due to be updated by22 December 2015, in accordance with the directive. The European Commission is currently in the process of undertaking a compliance assessment of the plans, but we believe they meet the requirements of the directive.