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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the amount of sewage and waste water entering rivers and streams from misconnected water and sewage pipes.

Water companies, the Environment Agency and local authorities are working to address misconnections and raise awareness with householders, the building trade and other professionals. This is being targeted by the ConnectRight campaign and the trade accreditation scheme, WaterSafe.

This work is being coordinated by the National Misconnections Strategy Group, which in addition to the organisations named above includes Defra and the Consumer Council for Water. The group has also developed good practice for the industry, as well as looking at measures to limit misconnections being made in the first place.

Further work to limit and reduce misconnections is also being planned as part of the planning for the next water company investment round in the period 2020-2025 to maintain a resilient wastewater and drainage system.