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Environment Agency flood defence criticised

Summary

In this Report, ‘Environment Agency: Building and Maintaining River and Coastal Flood Defences in England’ (HC 175), the Committee of Public Accounts examines how well the Agency carries out its role to protect people and properties from the risk of flooding and whether it adequately monitors and maintains the standards of existing flood defence systems.

Following on from a June 2007 report from the National Audit Office, 'Building and Maintaining River and Coastal Flood Defences in England’ (HC 528), the Committee here concludes that the Agency was unable to show its maintenance teams were deployed efficiently or that they focused their resources on high risk flood defence systems.

The Committee recommends that the Environment Agency make more effective use of their existing funding by:

  • Better prioritisation, aided by enhanced management information systems
  • Better targeting of resources based on flood risk in different parts of the country
  • Reducing the programme and project development costs of constructing defences.

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Law-Making Explained

This is a House of Commons Paper (HC 175 2007-08): it is a Report from the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts.

Find out more about Select Committees.

How does it affect me?

If you work in the environmental or construction sector or live in a flood risk area, this affects you.

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Find out more about the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts

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