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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the budget for the maintenance of existing defences in the end agency flood prevention budget has been in each year since 2010.

The Environment Agency (EA) develops flood and coastal risk management schemes where the risk is highest, wherever it is across the country. It uses a consistent set of criteria to prioritise funding for schemes which ensures a fair distribution of funding based on agreed priorities, principles and needs. It does not allocate or collate information separately for rivers or the coast.

The table below shows the EA’s total capital Grant in Aid (GIA) spend on flood and coastal erosion risk management and total revenue maintenance spend in each year since 2010/11 for which data is available. Capital GIA spend includes the construction of new flood and coastal erosion schemes as well as capitalised salaries and other flood risk management activity such as mapping, modelling and flood warning. Revenue maintenance spend includes developing technology and direct maintenance work such as dredging, inspecting assets, and carrying out repairs. Included in the figures is funding to support repairs from significant flood events.

*2010/11 revenue maintenance figure is unavailable