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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord De Mauley on 26 September (HL1785), when the proposed Somerset Rivers Board will be (1) formed, and (2) functioning.

Local partners in Somerset are developing a plan for a new Somerset Rivers Board. The Secretary of State is in close contact with local partners about progress on the formation of the Board. The Somerset Flood Action Plan, available online, states “Initial proposals [are] to be developed by [the] end [of] 2014 with new structures and funding operational from 2015/16, subject to any necessary legislative changes”.