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

To ask His Majesty's Government by which date they expect to implement Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 in England.

The Government is strongly committed to improving the implementation of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and we are looking at what additional steps might be taken to support this.

Better delivery of SuDS may be achieved by continuing to improve the current planning policy-based approach and looking at ways of improving the approach to adoption and maintenance, rather than commencing schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

We intend to consult on national planning policy related to decision making, including policies on flood risk and SuDS. The Government also recognises the importance of long-term maintenance of SuDS. We will be consulting on legislative and policy options to reduce the prevalence of unadopted estates, and the injustices associated with them, including for SuDS.