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Flood and Water Management Bill

My Lords, I emphasise in this respect the significant responsibility of the Environment Agency, which has access to the necessary information and produces an annual report. As the noble Baroness will know, the Committee has been at pains to make sure that that report is available. This is all part of the process of consultation. As regards the Environment Agency, I have briefing on the importance of publishing maps of flood risk areas. The floods directive, as transposed by the flood risk regulations, is due to be implemented over the next few years. It requires significant flood risk areas to be identified, as the noble Baroness has requested. It also requires maps to be drawn up and published showing those areas. I appreciate that the noble Baroness has emphasised very graphically the necessity of providing information in the public domain. I assure her that that is exactly the case. Therefore, I hope that she will feel able to withdraw her amendment. The noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, indicated that he did not think much of the clause. I hope that I have reassured him by my response to the noble Lords, Lord Cameron and Lord Taylor, and to the noble Baroness, Lady Knight, and that he will feel that the clause is critical to the overall strategy. The Government have thought through these issues and, given the contributions to this debate, we recognise how significant they are.