Ms Mary Gurrie:

All our sampling and monitoring comes into accredited laboratories. Every sample is robustly tested in accordance with standard procedures. The EPA has independently-accredited laboratories. There are quality checks. There are blanks. There is testing and all-the-time external auditing to make sure the sample results are as accurate as can be and are representative. We participate in, and actually run, an intercalibration scheme for different laboratories to make sure. We send out blind samples and ask whether everyone is getting the same answer. If one is not, one has to go and look at it. There is always that test of whether this make sense. There is not a whole set of separate river samples to be kept for testing but there are multiple samples every year. None of the data in this report for 2022 is a surprise in terms of what has been happening with nitrates and phosphates in our rivers that we have been monitoring for years but the output from our laboratories, our data and our biological samples are scrutinised robustly in Europe because they want a level playing pitch in terms of member states reporting on their water quality. As we said, we would absolutely stand over the quality of our data that is produced from our reports.