Rat Infestations (Hansard, 8 March 2000)

§ Ms Walley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions further to his answer of 24 January 2000,Official Report, column 130W, on rats, if he will commission a more detailed assessment of the conditions of drains and sewers near dwellings and their relationship to rat infestations as part of the 2001 English House Condition Survey. [113062]

§ Mr. Mullin
The 1996 English House Condition Survey (EHCS) included an assessment of observable faults to the drainage system around the dwelling, which surveyors can reasonably be asked to collect as part of a standard house condition survey. Development work is now under way for the 2001 survey and it is highly likely that this will be repeated. However, the EHCS is not an appropriate vehicle for carrying out more detailed investigative work on the overall condition of drains and sewers.

§ Ms Walley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, further to his answer of 24 January 2000,Official Report, column 130W, on rats, if cracked or defective drain covers would render a dwelling unfit. [113061]

§ Mr. Mullin
Under the current fitness standard a dwelling can be deemed unfit if it does not have an effective system for the draining of foul, waste and surface water. This tends to be based on an overall assessment of a number of features connected with the drainage system. In relation to the collection and analysis of the English House Condition Survey data, dwellings are not deemed unfit solely because of cracked or defective drain covers.

§ Ms Walley
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, further to his answer of 24 January 2000,Official Report, column 130W, on rats, if dwellings that are unfit as the result of lack of effective drainage are more likely to have rat infestations than those that are unfit on other counts; and if he will make a statement. [113060]

§ Mr. Mullin
The English House Condition Survey questions related to rodent infestations are analysed in the recent MAFF report "Rodent Infestations in domestic properties in England". Page 11 of the report emphasises that properties with defective drainage systems also tend to be defective in many other aspects. It would not be appropriate to analyse the data to make a distinction between those that are unfit for drainage reasons and those that are unfit for other reasons. This is because the number of dwellings in the sample that are classed as unfit because of problems with drainage is very small, less than 1 per cent. of the total sample.