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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many lead local flood authorities have (a) completed and (b) not completed a local flood risk management strategy.

Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) are required to report on progress with their strategies on an annual basis and the last annual collection was as of 31 March 2017. Following this, I wrote in July to the outstanding authorities and as a result, as of the beginning of November 2017, out of the 152 in England:

1. 143 have completed and published their strategy; and

2. 9 have either completed their public consultation or were at public consultation stage on their draft.

The Department is continuing to monitor progress with the Lead Local Flood Authorities that have not yet completed their strategy.