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Flood and Water Management Bill

My Lords, once again I declare that I am a farmer and a member of NFU Scotland. We can all be very grateful to the Government for bringing the Bill forward at this time, even though the legislative programme is under considerable pressure. As many other noble Lords have said, this legislation already has quite a history in its consideration at various levels in government; I think that we would all like to see its main points on the statute book. Even so, it leaves some lingering doubts about the outcome of its implementation. As my noble friend Lord Selborne has just pointed out, there had to be an element of putting the cart before the horse in that, in legislation, a Bill is normally followed by the relevant statutory instruments. In December, we had Statutory Instrument 2009/3042 on the assessment and management of flood risk in England and Wales. On its own, that placed all responsibility firmly in the hands of the Environment Agency. However, that seems to be the point where we were introduced to the concept of a "lead local flood authority". As far as I can see, the definition for that is only given in full legal terms in this Bill, so it appears that the earlier SI will in fact rely on this subsequent legislation. One thing that the statutory instrument required was the setting up of all necessary flood assessments. Judging from annexe C of the Government’s response to the Pitt report, I see that a fairly detailed plan was put in place in December 2008, showing stages of progress and the dates for completion. If all has gone according to that plan, the national flood emergency framework should have gone out to consultation last December. Can the Minister tell us how that most fundamental proposal is progressing? This Bill goes once again into all the special arrangements for cross-border catchment areas. That will be familiar territory to many of your Lordships who were involved in putting through the legislation implementing the EU water framework directive in what became the Water Act 2003. As the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Finsbury, reminded us, it would have been naïve to think at that time that we had done all the legislation necessary to deal with water. Now we have a new EU measure and a new Bill. Much of that Bill concerned the water industry and, like this one, contained powers and provisions for action in time of drought. Clause 36 contains amendments to the provision for temporary bans on water use in the Water Industry Act 1991. My noble friend Lady Fookes drew attention to Clause 47, on consolidation. Is this provision expected to run in parallel with the provisions in the 2003 Act, and can the Minister be sure that this will not leave room for some confusion? The Bill sets out to deal with coastal erosion and flooding. It contains some fairly sweeping powers for the Environment Agency and the Secretary of State. The exercise of these powers will enable them to make some sizeable changes in both of these areas. In support of my noble friend Lord Taylor, I come back to the question raised by the NFU of England in its briefing, on whether the Environment Agency will also have regard to the strategic needs of food production. This responsibility, I presume, should rest on the shoulders of the Secretary of State. However, this area can be explored in Committee. Another aspect that concerns me is flood risk management, which is covered in Clause 7. It is generally thought that to avoid flooding in built-up areas it will be necessary to allow flooding in currently rural agricultural areas. We can all be grateful for Schedule 1’s provision for the consideration of compensation for any losses incurred by third parties. However, it would be interesting to know whether the Government will consider as part of that cost the fall in value in areas that are to be opened up for flooding, but which are not subject to flooding at present, let alone the task of clearing up the debris that inevitably occurs when flooding is allowed to take place. My noble friend Lord Taylor spoke of Cumbria and Cockermouth. This is currently a major issue in that area. Payment can well be considered as part of the implementation of the national element of the national risk management strategy. It will not be as easy when these issues have to be considered at a local level and funding provided at that point. I would also probe the practical meaning of Schedule 4 in amending the Reservoirs Act 1975 and introducing a definition of a high-risk reservoir. Is the purpose of this to produce a category of risk that is even greater than was foreseen in the Reservoirs Act as it is? It is my understanding that in carrying out the inspection of reservoirs at present, one of the tasks of the engineer is to specify into which of three categories of risk a reservoir falls. I have had some experience of this. Can the Minister outline how this is likely to change?