Chichester MP defends sewage vote at Southern Water forum

Mrs Keegan joined a panel including representatives from Southern Water and the Environment Agency to be quizzed over frequent discharges of sewage into Sussex waters.

The meeting was held virtually on Thursday, September 22, and saw industry chiefs discuss the issue of sewage being discharged into waterways across Sussex.

Conservative MPs faced criticism when, in October 2021, a proposal from the Lords to the Environment Bill that would have placed legal duties on the companies to reduce discharges was defeated by 265 MPs’ votes to 202.

Launching the talks, chair of meeting Lawrence Abel, from Mrs Keegan’s office, asked whether she had voted to allow the practice of sewage discharges in bathing water.

Mrs Keegan said: “There’s been lots of misleading articles and lots of social media comments, also banners going up in places saying MPs including myself voted to pump raw sewage into the environment. Obviously this is not the case. I’m not stupid, I do think about things I am thoughtful so I want to remove any doubt and I’ll just tell you what happened during the passing of the Environment Act.

“There was an amendment which is number 141a for those in the detail. It was put forward by the Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords which sought to place a new duty on sewerage undertakers in England and Wales to demonstrate progressive reductions in the harm caused by discharges of untreated sewage.

“It was kind of trying to do the right thing and most MPs 100 per cent supported the principle of the amendment however the government felt that there was no plan as to how this could be delivered and no impact assessment had been carried out.

“If you put legislation in place which does not consider pre existing legislation or even a plan or even costs and how much money you need then effectively you’ve got no money to deliver a policy and it's a bit of a waste of paper.

“Legislation without proper consideration, however well intentioned, can often be detrimental, can lead to the wrong things happening and unforeseen impacts.”