Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department invested in upper catchment management schemes in each of the last five years.

The Environment Agency’s catchment-based approach to flood and coastal erosion risk management can include work on both upland and lower catchment areas. The Environment Agency does not collect data on whether a project is in an upper catchment.

Nature-based solutions have an important contribution to play in achieving climate resilient places. The Environment Agency’s £15m Natural Flood Management programme has demonstrated the important role nature-based projects can have in helping to slow the flow and store flood waters.

A new £25 million fund for Natural Flood Management (NFM) aims to provide flood risk reduction benefits as well as wider benefits to society and nature across England. NFM measures work best when a catchment-based approach is taken, to manage the flow of water from the source of our rivers to the sea, across our towns, cities, countryside and coasts.