Written question asked by Baroness Coffey (Conservative) on Wednesday, 1 July 2026, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 15 July 2026. It was answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour) on Friday, 10 July 2026 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Sewers: Housing and Schools

Question: To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of misconnections to the sewerage system for (1) homes, and (2) schools.

Answer

In 2019 around 150,000 to 500,000 homes in the UK were estimated to have drain misconnections. Defra does not have numbers of misconnections for schools.

Property owners are legally responsible for resolving misconnected pipework on their property; public misconnections are the responsibility of water companies.

Should misconnections not be resolved, the responsible party can be prosecuted; in some cases, local authorities and water companies can access private property to fix misconnections and then recover their costs from the owner.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: HL1526
Session: 2026-27
Subjects: Housing Maladministration Schools Sewers
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk

Sewers: Housing and Schools

Secondary information

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