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Flood and Water Management Bill

I thank the hon. Gentleman, although he has pulled the rug from under me, because the nub of what I am trying to say is that unless there is a clear statutory duty, there will always be a danger that fire and rescue services will not have the resources, equipment or trained personnel to intervene as we all know they would want to. That is why the Bill is seen as an appropriate vehicle for giving clear guidance to each fire and rescue authority on the need to equip its people to do the job. The purpose of amendments 24, 25, 27 and 26 is to list the appropriate places in the Bill where we feel that the fire and rescue service should be added as an organisation with a part to play in dealing with flooding. More than anything, we are talking about how the operation of fire and rescue services is about looking at how to deal with flood risk and the different management strategies needed to do so. To be fair, DEFRA recognises that, and to some extent we are highlighting the fact that this is a cross-departmental issue. As I will explain in a minute, other Departments perhaps ought to be listening to the lead that DEFRA is giving, to ensure that fire and rescue services are properly placed to deal with the problems that we have already identified and that we all know about. Let me deal with the current situation. My hon. Friends and I believe that the current law is incoherent. Fire and rescue authorities have to plan to deal with floods. They have the power to respond, but they do not have a duty to do so. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 gives fire and rescue authorities duties in respect of emergencies, including flooding. Those duties include assessing the risks of emergencies and planning not only to prevent them but to reduce, control and mitigate their effects. The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 gave fire and rescue services the ability to respond to eventualities other than fires and road traffic accidents, which could imply that flooding was included. However, then there was a problem, because the Department for Communities and Local Government effectively did a U-turn in March 2007, when it published the Fire and Rescue Services (Emergencies) (England) Order 2007, which did not include flooding. At the very least, therefore, there is confusion about the role of fire and rescue services in flooding.