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Flood and Water Management Bill

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. It serves to clarify that in emergency situations there needs to be someone in complete control over all the statutory bodies that are in attendance, and everything possible must be done to protect fire and rescue officers and all the other statutory personnel, as well as all the volunteers, some of whom may not be used to being organised or operating within a chain of command. They, in particular, need to know to whom they should report and from whom they should take instructions, both for their own safety and that of the people they are helping to rescue. What comes through from our experience of the most recent incident is that we must learn about, and take action on, all the areas where there can be improvements in the co-ordination of the service, and make sure that everybody who has a statutory duty has the proper equipment to be able to do their job.