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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what regulations exist to prevent leakage from private sewage systems into (a) soil and (b) groundwater.

Discharges to ground or watercourses from private sewerage systems are regulated by the Environment Agency under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016. The requirements of these regulations are implemented through a combination of statutory general binding rules for small discharges and environmental permits for larger ones. Other relevant regulations are the responsibility of local authorities, in particular the relevant provisions set out in the Building Act 1984 and the Public Health Act 1936.