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Written question asked by Rachael Maskell (Labour) on Friday, 2 December 2016, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 7 December 2016 (named day). It was answered by Baroness Coffey (Conservative) on Wednesday, 7 December 2016 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Flood Control: Utilities

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of utility assets she plans will be covered by National Flood Resilience Plan.

Answer

The National Flood Resilience Review did not examine individual utility assets, as responsibility for defending these from floods rests with each utility company.

Instead, it asked the telecommunications and water sectors to assess their vulnerable sites and put in place measures to increase the resilience of their services where appropriate.

Companies have delivered on this commitment, and are now in the process of making improvements to resilience, where feasible, ahead of Christmas 2016. This includes purchasing temporary flood defences, increasing redundancy or utilising alternative assets where temporary flood defences are not suitable and working with local emergency responders on broader local flood plans. Utilities companies are also working with government and regulators to ensure appropriate long term flood defence measures are put in place.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
56006
Session
2016-17
Subjects
Flood control Utilities
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk