asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to paragraph 8.3 of their response to the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee report, Water Management (8th Report, HL Paper 191–I), with whom they will consult on the future of the Drinking Water Inspectorate; how long the consultation will last; and when the results of the consultation will be published.[HL7756]

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is currently holding discussions with the proposed receiving bodies, prior to consultation, with a view to determining what the advantages and disadvantages of a transfer would be in each case. A full public consultation will be held early next year. Allowing for the statutory 12-week consultation period, decisions will be taken by the middle of 2007, when a summary of consultation responses will be published on the Defra website.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to paragraph 8.12 of their response to the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee report, Water Management (8th Report, HL Paper 191–I), whether they have powers that would enable them to declare payment for water bills to be more important than those for television, mobile phones, cars and credit cards to ensure that water companies are given a higher priority by the courts and advisers such as the citizens advice bureaux.[HL7758]

The Government do not have any powers to direct the courts or citizens advice bureaux to prioritise different kinds of bills. For people on benefit who have run up arrears, the Department of Work and Pensions’ third party deduction scheme makes statutory provision for an amount to be diverted from benefit direct to creditors for specified items of household expenses, including water costs. However, bills for other items mentioned by the noble Baroness are not included in the scheme and advisory bodies such as the citizens advice bureaux are aware of this.