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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps with (a) Ofwat, (b) the Department for Health and Social Care and (c) local authorities to enable proportionate data-sharing so that (i) water companies and (ii) councils can identify vulnerable households for priority services register support.

Water companies manage their own lists of customers who are on the Priority Services Register.

Ofwat, the economic regulator, has set out in their vulnerability guidance that companies should consider how their records of customers’ needs can be designed in a way that can help deliver wider benefits to their customers; for example, reducing communication burdens for customers through data sharing.