Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) visits to the affected area and (b) meetings with United Utilities management Ministers of her Department held respectively during the cryoptosporidium outbreak in Lancashire in summer 2015.

Rory Stewart

The Secretary of State spoke with United Utilities (UU) Chief Executive, Steve Mogford, regularly throughout the incident, both over the phone and in person. Defra officials and Drinking Water Inspectors (DWIs) participated in regular meetings (several per day) convened by Defra and the Local Resilience Forum, all of which were attended by senior level representatives of UU. Defra Ministers were briefed similarly frequently.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) team in the area attended the relevant UU sites to liaise with company officials and to carry out their monitoring and inspection duties on behalf of the Department.