---

Flood and Water Management Bill

My Lords, I have taken the argument on board. I agree with every Member of the Committee who has spoken on this matter, and I have supported my noble friend. The issue that I have raised is whether it should be a statutory obligation. I do not think that it should be in this Bill, and my noble friend also indicated that he recognised there might be other ways of addressing the issue. He said that if it were thought necessary, it might be possible to introduce such a duty by order. If we are convinced that underpinning of that kind is necessary, we can already introduce an order on fire and rescue services under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. Therefore, I am strenuously indicating that we are not yet convinced of the necessity for statutory underpinning, but we are totally convinced by the argument about co-ordination. We are putting funding in that direction, even including some voluntary parts of the service that receive no funding at present. It may be that they are reinforced on that point. I am grateful for the stimulus to debate on this important topic that my noble friend’s amendment has provided. I want him to withdraw it because this is not the Bill for that statutory underpinning. We are not even convinced that we need it, but if we were convinced, moved from our present framework and decided that we needed statutory underpinning, we have the powers to do that under the 2004 Act, and that is how we would do it.