To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (i) how many sewage discharge consents are currently active; and (ii) whether his Department assesses their cumulative impact on water quality.

Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) regulates discharges to the water environment under the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999. In total, the Department has issued 147,859 discharge consents for sewage related discharges. NIEA is unable to confirm if all of these consents are active.

The consideration of Consent to discharge applications is carried out on a risk-based approach.

Discharges from a single domestic property and low volume (less than 3m3/day) discharges are treated as low risk. NIEA does not currently assess cumulative impacts of these low volume discharges.

For discharges more than 3m3/ day, discharge consent standards are calculated based on existing water quality and the classification of the water body under the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017. The technical assessment therefore accounts for the cumulative impact of all inputs into that waterbody.

For those discharges proposed which may have an impact on a designated site, applications are subject to a Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRAs) under the Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995. These HRAs include an assessment of the cumulative, and in combination impact of other environmental authorisations.

NIEA is currently reviewing all of the consenting methods applied to ensure the most up to date data and information is used to inform the consideration of applications and to ensure sufficient controls are in place to drive improvement in water quality.