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Flooding: Pitt Report

My Lords, this Statement is greatly welcomed and will be pored over in Cumbria. Will my noble friend assure us that pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Bill will take place in a Joint Committee and not the Defra Select Committee in the House of Commons? A Select Committee consideration in the Commons is much briefer than would be the case here, where the legislation would spend far more time in the committee and would be subject to far greater scrutiny. Finally, is there a need to place in the Bill a requirement on water companies to manage their assets in such a way as to avoid flood damage to local communities in periods of flooding?