§ Lord Fearnasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many sea defences have been completed in England within the past 10 years; what are their 133WA locations; and how many of them received Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food grant. [HL3602]
§ Lord WhittyThe Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs provides grant aid to the coastal defence operating authorities (primarily the Environment Agency but also some maritime district councils) for capital works and studies to assist in the management of flood risk from the sea.
Defra (and previously the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) has approved 200 capital works projects for grant since 1 April 1993 which have been recorded as being primarily to protect against flooding from the sea. This does not include projects to protect against coastal erosion, works carried out without grant aid, nor maintenance works. I have placed a list of the projects in the Library of the House. I have shown projects approved rather than completed in the past 10 years as we do not record completion date in every case but have shown the latter where possible. I have also included projects approved earlier but which our records show as having been completed within the period. We would expect most projects to be completed within three years of approval.
The department does not record details of projects undertaken without grant aid so I am unable to provide details of these but it is unlikely that the coastal defence operating authorities would carry out many capital works of any size without grant aid.