For nearly a fortnight now over 300,000 households in Lancashire have been having to boil all water used for drinking, food preparation and brushing of teeth as the parasite cryptosporidium has been found in the local water supply. This situation, which doubtless would have been the lead story on almost every national news bulletin had it occurred in the south-east of the country, shows no immediate signs of improvement and, as well as the general inconvenience of having to boil water and subsequently let it cool to ambient temperatures before carrying out everyday domestic activities such as washing dishes, several restaurants and other businesses have been forced to close their doors.

We the undersigned would like to see a full and thorough parliamentary inquiry tasked with finding out how and why United Utilities seemingly allowed cryptosporidium to contaminate drinking water supplies and why there seems to be no contingency plans to deal with such a situation.