Committee publication · Correspondence · 25 March 2025
Correspondence from Stephen Lavelle following the evidence session with Northumbrian Water, dated 12 March 2025
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Inquiry: Reforming the water sector
Summary
Stephen Lavelle responds to oral evidence given by Northumbrian Water's CEO Heidi Mottram to the committee on 11 March 2025, contesting her characterisation of his information requests under environmental information regulations. Lavelle clarifies that he requested only two specific items (discharge records and return flow data for Whitburn pumping station in 2022), not a lengthy list, and notes the information is routinely collected annually for the Environment Agency as a legal permit condition, not a one-off compilation.
Key findings
- Lavelle states he made only two specific requests under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) to Northumbrian Water regarding Whitburn pumping station discharges, not the 'very big list' Mottram claimed.
- The discharge data Lavelle requested—times and volumes of discharges—is information NWL is legally required to supply annually to the Environment Agency under Whitburn discharge permit condition 13b (due by 31 October each year).
- The requested data has been supplied in the same format to the EA and DEFRA since 1997, and was provided to the European Court of Justice in a 2012 ruling (ECLI:EU:C:2012:633), contradicting Mottram's claim that such information is not 'routinely collected'.
- Lavelle requests the committee offer Mottram the opportunity to correct her evidence on these two points: the scope of his original request and the routine nature of the data collection.
Tone
AdversarialTopics
Key actors
Stephen Lavelle, Heidi Mottram, Northumbrian Water, Environment Agency, First Tier Tribunal, European Court of Justice
Notable line
“I did not come to NWL with a very big list of things - I asked for two things • The information I requested …”
Key Quotes
“Under the EIR I request that I be provided with the following environmental information: 1. A detailed description of all of the discharges records for the year 2022 for discharges that were made from the Whitburn Steel pumping station situated at Whitburn, South Tyneside discharging through the long sea outfall and into the North Sea at that location.”
“The volumes of discharges at Whitburn have been supplied to the EA and DEFRA in this format since”
“With respect to the question put to her regarding information I requested concerning the Whitburn pumping station - I did not come to NWL with a very big list of things - I asked for two things”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗