In 2013 the Welsh and UK Governments issued a joint consultation on proposals for abstraction reform. We received a wide range of views and broad support for our proposals and in 2014 we published our joint summary of consultation responses. We have continued working with interested parties since then to develop these proposals further.

The Welsh Government has now published its response to the consultation. This takes account of the input received from a range of interested parties and sets out the proposed plans for reforming the abstraction management system in Wales, balancing the needs of different business users and sustainable management of our natural resources.

Our consultation response for Wales which can be found at: http://gov.wales/consultations/environmentandcountryside/making-the-most-of-every-drop/?skip=1&lang=en.

The UK Government has also published its response for England, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-water-abstraction-management-system-making-the-most-of-every-drop.

If you have any queries about our response document, please contact me directly or e-mail water@wales.gsi.gov.uk.

Any queries relating to the UK Government response for England should be sent to: abstraction_reform@defra.gsi.gov.uk.