Written question asked by Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative) on Wednesday, 25 July 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 October 2007. It was answered by Phil Woolas (Labour) on Monday, 8 October 2007 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Housing: Floods

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) when he expects to announce access to the full flood mapping data and flood defence information for existing and planned defences; and on what basis this will be provided to insurance companies;

Answer: The Environment Agency's flood maps provide information on flood risk from rivers and the sea. Full flood mapping data and flood defence information is already available in response to requests for access. A standardised set of information is available to insurance companies, among others, for re-use under licence, subject to the Environment Agency's standard licence terms and conditions.The Environment Agency's Flood Map and National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA) data are also available, under licence, subject to the Environment Agency's standard licence terms and conditions. Both data sets show areas of land at risk of flooding.The Environment Agency does not offer a product that differentiates between types of property because the requirements of different users vary, and because the chance of a property flooding is dependent on many factors including floor levels, construction methods and construction materials. Subject to the intended use of the resulting data, licensees may combine Environment Agency data with their own property type datasets to produce a dataset that meets their specific needs.The latest National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA 2006) data is available to insurers in a format which contains both address point references and spatial and postcode formats.

Secondary information