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 research carried out by the British Insurance Brokers Association into the difficulties that groups excluded from accessing buildings insurance within Flood Re are experiencing in accessing affordable flood insurance; and if he will make a statement.

The survey by the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) has been considered with interest.

Defra has commissioned its own research to monitor the market for flood insurance. This will include the market for domestic insurance, for which Flood Re has been designed, and the market for commercial flood insurance, for which Flood Re was not designed.

I am planning to discuss this issue of commercial flood insurance with BIBA and representative organisations from the property sector at a round-table meeting later this month.