Statements
Ministerial Statement Announcing Review into Floods
12 JULY 2007
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Floods
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Hilary
Benn): The month of June was the wettest June on record; in excess of 150mm
of rain fell over most of the Midlands and northern England with between
200 and 300mm in parts of the North East. These extreme conditions led to
large scale urban flooding, a lot of which was from surface water run-off
rather than from rivers. The flooding affected places across the Midlands
and Yorkshire and Humberside, and tragically four people lost their lives
as a direct result of the flooding. The circumstances of three other
reported deaths are still being investigated. Over 37,000 properties
including some 7,000 businesses are reported to have been affected, with
nearly 18,000 properties affected in the Hull area alone and over 5,000 in
the Doncaster area. It is estimated that thousands of people are still out
of their homes with around 300 in emergency accommodation in Sheffield and
Doncaster, and Hull. The response of the emergency services, local
authorities, operating authorities, voluntary sector and the affected
communities has been very impressive.
However, as the affected communities, businesses and individuals move to
the long and difficult task of recovery, they are understandably asking
questions about the flooding - its causes and subsequent management. My
ministerial colleagues and I have said that it is vital that we learn
lessons now about how to manage and respond to this type of disaster in the
future. As part of the usual process following an emergency we are
establishing a review to identify these lessons, and the Prime Minister
stated on 8 July that the conclusions of such an exercise would be made
public. I am, therefore, announcing today how the Government intend to go
about this and our aim to publish initial findings by the end of the year
and subsequently a formal Government report. The review will be led by
officials from the Cabinet Office with my officials' support. They will
report to me, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, and the Secretary of
State for Communities and Local Government.
The review will look at flood risk management, the emergency response and
the initial moves towards recovery. The longer-term recovery effort will
require sustained commitment over a considerable period of time, and a
further review will be undertaken separately once these tasks are well in
hand and we are better able to assess the lessons to be drawn from it.
The review will consider all available evidence on the flooding and its
impacts and what this means for the future. Its specific objectives will
be;
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To understand why the flooding was so extensive;
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To learn lessons on how in future we can best predict, prevent or
mitigate the scale and impact of flooding incidents;
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To look at how best to co-ordinate the response to flooding in future;
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To establish what access to support, equipment and information is needed
by those involved in the response at local, regional and national levels;
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To ensure the public has as much access as possible to information on the
risk of flooding to allow them to take appropriate precautions, be
adequately informed on developments as an emergency unfolds, and be
looked after properly in the immediate aftermath;
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To establish how the transition from response to recovery is best
managed;
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To identify those aspects of the response that worked well and should be
promoted and reinforced;
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To make recommendations in each of these areas to improve the UK's
preparedness for flooding events in the future.
The lessons learned exercise will be wide ranging and will hear from those
involved at the local, regional and national level. It will ensure a
structured approach to public engagement so that the voices of local
communities are heard, including affected individuals and locally elected
representatives (councillors and local MPs). At the same time I recognise
that a considerable amount of work is taking place dealing with the
recovery from last month's events - the review will therefore take
place in a staged approach. It will identify areas for attention as quickly
as possible with fuller responses over a slightly longer timescale. We aim
to summarise initial findings of the review by the end of the year and
explore more fully how we propose to address them in a subsequent published
report.
