Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department made of the number of older people living in areas serviced by Thames Water who have been left without access to water for more than 24 hours in the last five years.

Under the Security and Emergency Measures Direction (SEMD), companies have to provide an annual self-assessment of whether their emergency plans include prompt identification and support of vulnerable customers, including transient vulnerabilities and customers who are not on the Priority Service Register. Assurance and enforcement of SEMD requirements is undertaken by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI). However, neither DWI or Defra collects data on the number of vulnerable people in each water region.

All water companies have priority service registers, which customers voluntarily sign up to. The Priority Services Register is a free support service that makes sure extra help is available to people in vulnerable situations. The number of customers signed up to Thames Water’s priority service register has increased from 60,020 in 2017-18 to 284,379 in 2021-22.