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 improve the structural integrity of the canal network.

Responsibility for ensuring the structural integrity of the canal network rests with the navigation authorities concerned. The largest navigation authority is the Canal and River Trust, with some 2,000 miles of waterways. The Government is currently providing the Trust with an annual grant of £52.6 million to support maintenance of the network infrastructure and has agreed a further £401 million grant for the ten years 2027-2037.