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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to increase preparedness for extreme weather and flooding as a result of climate change.

We are preparing for the impacts of climate change, including the increased threat of extreme weather and flooding, primarily through the implementation of the first National Adaptation Programme report which Defra published in July 2013. This sets out more than 370 actions across key sectors involving government, business, councils, civil society and academia.

The second round of reporting under the Climate Change Act 2008 Adaptation Reporting Power is currently underway. The process encourages organisations, such as major infrastructure providers and public bodies, to identify current and future climate risks to their organisation and functions, and asks them to develop a plan to address them.

Over the next six years, £2.3 billion will be spent on more than 1,500 schemes to improve flood defences. This will better protect more than 300,000 homes, up to 420,000 acres of agricultural land, 205 miles of railway and 340 miles of roads. This represents an overall reduction in national flood risk of 5%, despite the increased underlying risk from climate change.

National scenarios for flood and coastal risk management over the next 50 years are set out in our Long-Term Investment Scenarios (published December 2014).