Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what definition her Department uses of sustainable abstraction of water from rivers. [77234]

Richard Benyon MP; Minister of State: Sustainable abstraction is where water can be taken from rivers or from the ground without damage to the environment. The Environment Agency's assessment of damage will consider whether there is, or is a risk of, unacceptable environmental change and will include reference to relevant definitions across a range of environmental legislation, including:

(A) The Water Framework Directive: for surface waters damage would be where there is an impact on the ecology to a level that it is causing failure against good ecological status/potential. For groundwater it would represent failure against good groundwater quantitative status.

(B) The Habitats Directive: environmental damage is where the damage has a 'significant adverse effect on reaching or maintaining the favourable conservation status' of a protected species or habitat.

(C) Sites of Special Scientific Interest: environmental damage is where there has been damage to the flora or fauna notified under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 or the EU protected species or natural habitats in the site, and that damage has an adverse effect on the integrity of the site.