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Flood and Water Management Bill

I am merely indicating why both concepts have to be obligatory upon risk management authorities. The only word of comfort I have for the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, is that, as she knows, we are concerned with our strategy for food security and production in the country. She has identified that there might be difficulties for food producers because of the way the Bill will operate, and that is an important consideration. We have had to include the availability of certain kinds of marginal land in the issues that we have concerned ourselves with in relation to the security of food strategy, and erosion therefore raises its ugly head for obvious reasons. We do not think that we ought to be enormously distressed at national level about the relationship between protection, as far as the Bill is concerned, water problems, the national food strategy and food production. I hear what the noble Baroness says about a particular area, though, and that is to be borne in mind. I cannot do anything about consultation blight, but I can emphasise that the Bill is about effective consultation, as noble Lords have enjoined us. I am against the necessity for specification as the amendments require. The Environment Agency is used to consulting relevant representative organisations and other persons and to using its judgment as to which bodies need to be approached individually, and it will carry out this function in relation to this Bill in the same way. The Environment Agency is under a duty to secure the involvement of representatives of interested persons where it considers that appropriate. Under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, it must exercise this judgment in a reasonable way. If it did not consult, it would not be acting reasonably, and that is a safeguard for the national body. In addition, the Secretary of State has the power to issue guidance to all lead local flood authorities in England to which they must have regard. The process of consultation will be identified in the guidance we are to produce, but that is different from saying that it should be in primary legislation. As for Amendments 28, 29, 34 and 35, which add water companies and relevant sewerage undertakers to the list of bodies, the lists in Clauses 9 and 10 include risk management authorities that may be affected by the strategy, and water companies and sewerage undertakers are defined in them, so they are already included within the definition of risk management authorities in Clause 6(13). The relevant water companies and sewerage companies have got to be consulted, and we are quite clear about that. I am grateful to noble Lords for emphasising that fact. The Government would be very remiss if it was not in the Bill, but the Committee can rest assured that the necessity for consultation with those authorities is already enshrined.