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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that men who experience incontinence are able to dispose of their incontinence products in specialist bins in male toilets.

Defra oversees policy and legislation with respect to the safe management of waste and of litter. However, Defra has no powers to compel the provision of sanitary bins as the maintenance of public toilets is usually a matter for the relevant local authority, and I would encourage the hon. Member to raise the issue locally. Councils have a duty to make arrangements for the regular emptying and cleansing of any litter bins that they provide or maintain. They also have the power to clean and empty litter bins provided in any street or public place.

The emptying of litter bins must be sufficiently frequent to ensure that no such litter bin or its contents becomes a nuisance or gives reasonable grounds for complaint. Sewer blockages can also lead to flooding inside homes and businesses and are expensive to clear.  There are measures in current water industry legislation to protect drains and sewers from damage due to misuse including pouring damaging substances down drains and sewers. Damaging these infrastructures is an offence punishable by a fine or, in more serious cases, imprisonment for a maximum of two years.