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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have set a target for the time between a local authority agreeing that noise from residential premises constitutes a statutory nuisance and the cessation of such noise.

Defra is responsible for the domestic legislation covering statutory nuisances, although local authority environmental health departments are the main enforcers of the statutory noise regime under the Environmental Protection Act, 1990.

Sources of noise nuisance are highly individual, and while some can be dealt with swiftly and straightforwardly, others will require works to be carried out or other steps to be taken which may be more complex and time consuming. As such, the Government considers that decisions around the timeframe for complying with a noise abatement order must be a matter for local authorities to decide within individual situations.