Water fittings: preventing backflow of water from toilet cisterns

This consultation closed on 3 October 2022. We received 42 responses to the consultation. Not all respondents answered all questions.

We analysed responses on proposed changes to 11 specifications to:

• protect human health from contaminated drinking water
• reflect modern toilet designs

We made more amendments to our proposed specifications.

We notified the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the European Union of a potential technical barrier to trade. This is required under the Northern Ireland Protocol because these changes are relevant to compliance in Northern Ireland.

We received no comments from these notifications.

Responses to the call for evidence on faulty toilet valves covered a variety of areas reflecting the range of respondents' experiences.

Most agreed that government should take action to reduce the impact of leaking toilets. Preferences on the approach were tightly clustered with no clear favoured option.

Evidence and comments provided will allow Defra to have follow up conversations on the content of any proposed changes. Preliminary discussions with core stakeholders are already taking place.

The summary of responses and the government response to them, along with the final regulator specifications and test code sheets, are expected to be published in summer 2024.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.