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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency funding was made available by her Department for flooding in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

While Defra does not hold contingency funding specifically for flooding, the Environment Agency’s incident response capability ensures we are prepared to respond effectively to flooding when it does occur. Where more funding is required, Defra and the Environment Agency will reprioritise its activities in the first place to meet costs. In case of extreme events, like the flooding we saw last winter and in 2013/14, we work with the HM Treasury to ensure that funding is available to support our response and recovery activities.