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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the effectiveness of the flushability tests used by manufacturers of disposable wipes.

Sewer blockages can be a serious problem, and sewer flooding can cause great distress to householders.

We support the work that the industry is taking forward to reduce the number of blockages. Water UK, the representative body for the UK water and sewerage industry, has led on development of a voluntary test that sanitary manufacturers can use to establish whether or not their product is truly flushable.