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Flood and Water Management Bill

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, on tabling his amendments on such an important issue. Perhaps I might join with the sentiments expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, on his diligence in making sure that we learn lessons from the events in Cockermouth and in the Lake District in general. The speeches have reinforced the noble Lord’s amendments, because the role of the fire and rescue services in a flooding event is absolutely critical. It has been a remarkable omission from the Bill that they have not hitherto been directly mentioned. While the Bill aims to prevent flooding wherever possible and to mitigate the effects where it happens, we must also be realistic and accept that, unfortunately, severe floods will still occur. A major part of what we do with this Bill is therefore to ensure that, following a disaster, the mechanisms for getting all the necessary assistance in place have been thought through carefully. The Bill is about integration, and this amendment brings to the fore the fact that the co-operation of the fire and rescue authorities is vital. They ought to be involved at every stage of preparation, because when called upon to act they will be expected to perform almost superhuman tasks. The noble Lord drew attention to the work done in the 2007 floods, and we all saw the role that they played in the 2009 Cumbrian floods. It would be really unacceptable to place demands on stretched services without having a clear plan in place for what role they might play. This is both a national and a local issue. As we saw in Cockermouth last year, when an event on the scale of those floods occurs local services can quickly be overwhelmed. It was very useful for the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, to bring up the voluntary services that often work in close association with the professional fire and rescue services. Some of them are probably on retainers rather than being full-time, but are none the less highly professional and skilled. It is a point that the voluntary organisations frequently find that they cannot get their kit recovered after an operation such as happened in Cockermouth last year, except by further fundraising. As we know, the Army was required to come in; it performed a sterling job in those difficult circumstances. I expect that we would expect it to do so again, especially in putting up the temporary bridges that have allowed some semblance of normality to return to those communities which have been cut off—although it is wrong to assume that normality is the existence for everybody up there. There is still a lot to be done. Plainly, that was a very large effort indeed and may have been at the extreme end of the spectrum, but in any adverse circumstances the rescue services will be out in force. How that responsibility is co-ordinated across local flood authorities is certainly a matter of great importance, and I very much welcome the opportunity that the noble Lord has given us to debate it. I will be interested to hear what the Minister says.