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Flood and Water Management Bill

I commend the sentiment raised in the noble Earl’s amendment. I declare an interest as a member of the Climate Change Adaptations Sub-Committee. The noble Earl may be reassured to know—I am sure the Minister will tell him—that under the Climate Change Act many of the utilities are already required to report on their readiness for the impacts of climate change, including flooding and other pressures. That may reassure him that the amendment is not required in this form in the Bill. However, there is one glaring error and anomaly in the reporting requirement laid down under the Climate Change Act—that the communications companies are not required to be resilient against flooding and the other impacts of climate change. We tried nobly during the passage of the Digital Economy Bill to get that remedied. I hope that your Lordships will note for some future occasion that there is a need to make sure that when we increasingly face floods, droughts, heat waves and the other impacts of climate change, our communications networks are not immediately knocked out. We will not know whether that will be the case because the only thing in place at the moment is the beginnings of an informal agreement with the communications companies. I commend the sentiments that the noble Earl has put forward but the amendment needs to be more comprehensive.