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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to prevent the pollution of urban waterways caused by the misconnection of household drainage pipes.

I recognise that misconnection of household drainage pipes can cause problems in urban areas. Defra and the Environment Agency have been working with water companies to highlight and target areas of greatest risk. Water companies that have a greater risk of pollution have also allocated resources for dealing with misconnections over the next five years.

Defra and the Environment Agency are working with Water and Sewerage Companies and the Consumer Council for Water through a National Misconnections Strategy Group (NMSG) to develop good practice for the industry, as well as looking at measures to limit misconnections being made in the first place. We see that continued proactive communication direct with customers, white goods manufacturers and trade organisations, is a key preventative tool.