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Flood and Water Management Bill

I agree with the intention behind the hon. Lady's comments, but not with her amendments. Let me deal directly with the issue of consultation, which we dealt with in Committee as well, and the allegation that water companies and contractors have not been consulted. Actually, they are key members of the private sewers review stakeholders steering group, and we have been working closely with them. There were consultations in 2004 and 2007—I will come to the individual contractors soon—to which water companies responded. They also worked with DEFRA in the follow-up to the consultations. I would like to make an interesting point about the concerns raised. I have seen letters as well. Letters have been sent to the Department—from smaller drainage contractors, family firms and so on—saying what the proposals will mean for them. I cannot say precisely what they will mean, but as I have said previously, I think that there will be opportunities, post-transfer, because the work will need to be done. The number of small contractors still operating in Scotland, which is slightly ahead of us on this, makes interesting reading, because it is comparable to the numbers that were operating before. The Scottish figures are also comparable to the numbers operating in similar city areas in England—for example, we can compare Edinburgh to a similar-sized city in England. Actually, there has not been a shake-out; they have responded. So I anticipate that there will still be a market for small operators. The hon. Lady rightly raised the issue of consultation on private sewers. In December 2008, we announced that the transfer would take place from 2011, and we are working to that timetable. We have to consult on the affirmative resolution regulations that she mentioned to make transfer happen, and we will do that in the next few months. I do not have a specific date, I am afraid, and we do have an election right in the middle of it, unfortunately—I say unfortunately, but I am pro-democracy of course. However, it does cause some problems with setting a specific date. The position for Wales is set out clearly in the strategic policy statement. We intend, therefore, to bring this forward in the next few months—by which I mean this side of the summer. I cannot promise that it will be this side of an election, however, because that is out of my hands. The concern behind amendment 18 is that sewerage undertakers should not be liable for failure to keep records of the assets that they inherit as a result of the transfer. The EA is concerned that such a blanket exemption, as set out in the amendment, could make it difficult to gather a full understanding of the impact of private sewers and lateral drains on sewerage undertakers' systems. It is the Government's intention to look carefully at that as part of the transfer. However, in any event, should any complaint about a breach of duty be made, Ministers could reasonably take into account whether a company was acting appropriately in deciding whether enforcement action might be appropriate. Accepting amendment 17 might limit the extent, scope and speed of transfer and the Government's regulation-making power on transfer schemes, which is subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. Following any transfer, the undertakers will have statutory access rights provided to them when laying or accessing their own infrastructure. Those rights were granted expressly by Parliament and have been considered by successive Administrations to strike the right balance between the interests of landowners and those of sewerage companies. Where they wish to obtain additional rights, they can seek to agree them with the landowners.