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Flood and Water Management Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, for that comment. I hope that I can repay him with the accuracy of my response to the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor. I appreciate the fact that the noble Lords based their point on an observation noted in the report from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. As we explained in our letter of 11 March, in response to that report, we consider that the application of this power to future legislation is justified by the need, as recommended by Sir Michael Pitt’s review into the summer 2007 floods, to consolidate the present Bill with existing flood and coastal erosion legislation and any further legislation not included in this Bill but identified in the draft Bill which we published last year. The power in Clause 29 would also need to apply to any subsequent floods and/or consolidation legislation. It is important to note that the power could be used only within the context of restructuring as set out in Clause 29. I want to give the obvious assurance to the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, who is making my hair stand on end with his concept of how far these powers might go, that it could not be used to amend Acts for a purpose that has nothing at all to do with flood or coastal erosion risk management or flood or coastal erosion risk management authorities. It is also necessary to have this power since future legislation may create bodies that should be integrated into the flood or coastal erosion risk management institutional framework. This need may not be foreseeable at the time the legislation is passed, so the power to do so at a later time without having to wait for primary legislation again would ensure the crucial future flexibility which we consider to be necessary to allow the Government of the day to be adaptive and responsive in ensuring all the relevant bodies the best place to tackle flood or coastal erosion risk. The provision, of course, makes any use of the power to transfer robust responsibilities subject to a duty to consult the bodies affected, as will be readily appreciated by all Members of the Committee, and to the affirmative procedure in Parliament. I hope I have assured the noble Lord that we are concerned about the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee report. Our letters make clear the framework within which we are operating. It is related purely to the objectives of the Bill and is an attempt at future-proofing so that even quite minor changes for the authorities involved would not force the Government of the day to have to go back to primary legislation to continue the objectives of this legislation.