Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of flood predicting equipment at River Ouse level at Viking Recorder; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure information about a predicted flood is (a) accurate and (b) communicated to the public.
The Environment Agency (EA) uses flood modelling to understand the risk of flooding at a local and a national level. The modelling is linked to a network of river gauges which allows the EA to predict potential river levels and if needed issue warnings.
The flood models use a range of information to help make them as reliable as possible and this is reviewed and examined rigorously after every flooding incident.
The EA uses its flood warning system to directly alert those at risk when flooding is expected so that they can take action to prepare for any impacts. Over 1.5 million properties are signed up to receive these warnings. In York over 7,300 property owners are signed up to the flood warning service and receive flood warning alerts via text, phone or email. This represents over 75% of properties in flood warning areas in York.
The Viking Recorder in York is used to monitor actual river levels on the River Ouse. The measurement equipment is visited every two months for a calibration check and adjustments are made to check if the recorder falls outside defined tolerance levels.
A modelled computer forecast of river levels at the Viking Recorder is provided on gov.uk here: https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/station/8208
The EA advises that members of the public and businesses check if their property is at risk of flooding here https://www.gov.uk/check-flooding and sign up for flood warnings here https://www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warnings.