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Flood and Water Management Bill

I shall be brief so that my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North (Stephen Pound) can get in as well. I was delighted to take part in the Committee stage of the Bill. I asked to serve on the Committee and was allowed to do so. Having also taken part in the pre-legislative scrutiny, I have seen the progress of the Bill from its earliest days. We know that there were many questions about whether it was needed, not necessarily about whether the timing was right. Some of us would argue that it should have been introduced sooner. With the Cave review, the Walker review and the draft Bill, which was always there and unlikely to be carried through in its totality, there were always those who would urge caution, delay and so on. The Government were right to introduce the Bill. Like the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood), I pay tribute to the Minister who took it through. The essence of good legislation is not what happens in the Committee, but what happens outside it. We had useful discussions, and as a result, the Minister listened. Although we are still in play, we have a better Bill which will, in due course, be fit for purpose. It will need to be amended and enhanced, but we knew always that. To my mind, the simple way to look at this is whether we have aligned better the legislative framework, the responsibility of those who have to take action, and the funding mechanisms that allow those actions to take place. I believe that we have. Some criticisms could be made, and we could have done some things differently and better; and no doubt the other place will look further into such matters. I hope, however, that their lordships will be very careful not to wreck, unduly delay or send back this Bill, because my people in Gloucestershire need to know that they are better protected than they were before the Bill started its parliamentary passage. They need to know that what happened in 2007 will not happen again—not, of course, that we can stop the floods, but we can rectify some of the things that went wrong. Although I was not there in person to see the beatification of my hon. Friend the Member for Selby (Mr. Grogan), I am glad of the opportunity to say before he leaves this place that he will forever be known as someone who has managed to defeat the Government and bring them to their senses on an issue that I still do not understand, but am sure is of great import, and will ever remain so.