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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what reviews are being conducted into the Thames Barrier or Thames flood defences.

In response to increasing pressures, such as climate change, the Environment Agency produced the Thames Estuary 2100 Plan. This identifies options and recommendations for managing flood risk across the estuary up to the end of the century, and includes possible monitoring, maintenance, modifications and improvements to the Thames Barrier and associated flood defences. This could also include the construction of a new Thames Barrier at Long Reach, Dartford, by 2070.