Water (Special Measures) Bill - Government motion to insist on Commons Amendment 2 and to propose Amendment (a) in lieu

The Commons voted on 11 February 2025 to reject a Lords amendment to the Water (Special Measures) Bill and replace it with a government-drafted substitute. The motion passed by 331 votes to 65. This was a stage in parliamentary ping-pong, the back-and-forth process by which the two Houses resolve disagreements over a bill's text before it can become law. The vote concerns the detail of new regulatory powers over the water industry in England and Wales. The government insisted on its own version of Amendment 2 rather than the Lords' wording, arguing its substitute achieved the same policy intent in preferable terms. The bill as a whole is designed to tighten oversight of water companies, with provisions including stronger enforcement tools for regulators and measures linked to executive pay and bonuses in the sector. Labour MPs voted unanimously in favour, joined by the four Green MPs, the Democratic Unionist Party, and the smaller unionist parties. The Liberal Democrats voted solidly against, all 63 of their voting members backing the Noes, alongside all four Plaid Cymru MPs. The Conservative Party had no votes recorded in either lobby. The SNP also had no votes recorded. The Liberal Democrats have positioned themselves as critics of the government's approach to water regulation, a dynamic also visible in a related Opposition Day debate on sewage in April 2025, where they pressed their own motion against the government.