§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will publish the national assessment of flood risk. [89634]
§ Margaret BeckettThis Department, as an aid for planning by all flood and coastal operating authorities, commissioned research to produce a national appraisal of the assets at risk from flooding and coastal erosion in 1999. The results were published in July 2000 and an update version was published in September 2001. Further research on large scale risk assessment has since been carried out under the joint Environment Agency/ Defra research programme in flood management and results of the first phase of this work have been applied to the latest information collated for input to the national flood and coastal defence database. The results of this research application which take account of updated estimates of property flood damage from other research are currently being compiled and reviewed. They will be made available once the necessary quality checks have been completed. It should be stressed that the new research methodology is at the leading edge of developments in risk analysis at this scale so the results will have to be interpreted with some caution.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the most recent meeting was between Ministers in her Department and the Association of British Insurers to discuss flood prevention; and if she will make a statement. [89633]
§ Margaret BeckettThe most recent meeting was on 17 September 2002 following which the ABI issued their Statement of Principles to apply from 1 January 2003. There are also regular discussions between my officials and the ABI.