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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider distributing hand-held devices to households in flood-prone areas to allow them to transmit information, and to receive real-time news, about local water levels.

There are currently no plans to consider such devices. However, we do already urge households to take care and be prepared by checking their flood risk, signing up to free flood warnings and keeping an eye on the latest flood updates, which are available on the Environment Agency website and Twitter. These are readily accessible from personal mobile phones with internet access. People can also call our 24-hour Floodline for updates.