Floods
Mark Tami:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
what review her Department has undertaken to identify those areas of the
UK that are at risk of flooding. [35244]
Richard Benyon:
The floods directive, as transposed by the Flood Risk Regulations 2009
in England and Wales, requires member states to identify areas that are
at potentially significant risk of flooding. Flood hazard and flood risk
maps and management plans must then be prepared for these areas.
Given that the Environment
Agency already holds equivalent maps and plans for main rivers and
coastal flood risk, our work focused on local sources of flooding, for
which responsibility lies with lead local flood authorities. To assist
local authorities in determining flood risk areas, DEFRA has identified
indicative areas which local authorities must then review.
The method for identifying
indicative risk areas was developed in consultation with the Environment
Agency , Welsh Assembly Government, the Department for Communities and
Local Government and the Local Government Association, drawing on both
the Environment Agency's flood maps for surface water and a database of
assets at risk. This established areas where 200 people, two or more
critical services or 20 or more businesses are at risk of flooding.
Clusters of these areas were identified and the results were then ranked
to determine the highest risk areas. A threshold of 30,000 people at
risk was applied to ensure that the subsequent mapping and planning
phases are achievable and not too onerous.
The result was ten indicative
flood risk areas within England, which account for 33% of the national
surface water risk. Eight such areas have been identified in Wales.
A similar approach has been
applied in Northern Ireland, and Scotland is in the process of
identifying an appropriate methodology.
