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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing guidance to require water companies to add sand traps to waste water treatment facilities.

Waste water treatment in the UK is largely determined by the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment (England and Wales) Regulations 1994. The Regulations have the objective of protecting the environment from the adverse effects of waste water by setting minimum treatment levels supplemented by additional requirements to protect more sensitive receiving waters. The Regulations set the treatment standards to be achieved but do not prescribe the technology to be used to meet these standards. The use of sand traps to meet these standards is therefore a matter for water companies.