John Stanley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Stanley on 2014-04-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his policy is on the continued exclusion of borough councils for areas where there is no unitary authority from the definition of risk management authorities in Section 6(13) of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

Dan Rogerson

All local authorities are risk management authorities under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. No local authorities are excluded from the definition of a risk management authority in the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

A ‘borough council’ will either be a unitary authority or a district council. As a unitary authority it will be a ‘lead local flood authority’, which in turn makes it a ‘risk management authority’ in its own right (the same applies to county councils). Where it is not a unitary authority it is a district council, whether known as borough council or city council, and so is also a risk management authority.