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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of flood defences.

Since 2010, the Government has invested over £6 billion to better protect more than 600,000 properties. Government investment in flood defences and action taken by the Environment Agency helped protect over 139,000 properties during storms Babet and Ciarán, and 102,000 properties during storm Henk.

No properties were flooded by Storms Babet and Ciarán because of any flood defences being below required condition.