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 risk to those coastal areas likely to be worst affected by rising sea levels.

The Government has strong national policies on coastal management that actively integrate adaptation to climate change. We defend the coast where it is sustainable and affordable to do so, and let it function naturally in areas where it is not.

UK Climate Predictions 2018 (UKCP18) published in November show that sea levels around the UK will continue to rise to the year 2100 under all emission pathways, with increases generally greater in the south than in the north. We can continue to expect increases in extreme coastal water levels driven mainly by increases in mean sea level rise. Over the next six months, the Environment Agency (EA) will be undertaking work to better understand the implications of UKCP18 for flood and coastal erosion activities.

In England, coastal authorities have developed a network of Shoreline Management Plans covering the entire coast of England. These plans provide a high level, long term policy framework to manage coastal change over three time horizons: 20, 50 and 100 years. The EA is now working with those coastal authorities to refresh the plans, to ensure that they are up to date and using the latest evidence.