Emergency planning
If you are worried about flooding please phone the Environment Agency's Floodline number:
(0845) 988 1188
You can also get information on current flood warnings from the Agency's website. Emergency response to events will be led by the police alongside the other emergency services (ambulance and fire) and in liaison with local authorities and the Environment Agency.
Lead Department Plan for Flooding and Flood Emergencies
There are a range of partners involved in planning for, and dealing with, flooding events at the national, regional and local levels. The responsibilities of Defra and others are set out in our Lead Department Plan
. The Plan takes account of lessons identified following the Summer 2007 floods, the November East Coast Tidal Surge and the floods earlier this year, as well as issues raised in the recently published Interim Pitt report.
Regionally, the lead planning role falls to the government offices for the regions working with local authorities, the Environment Agency and emergency services (police, fire, ambulance, coastguard). The police will lead the response during an actual emergency. The Environment Agency’s main operational role is to forecast flooding, issue flood warnings and operate its own flood defence infrastructure (for example barriers and sluices) to mitigate the impacts. The Environment Agency ensures local professional partners are well briefed on the likelihood and implications of flooding. There are also provisions for government coordination when necessary through the arrangements operated by the Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat.
The Government has set up Regional Resilience Teams in each of the English regions to enhance the co-ordination of planning for wide impact events such as major flooding and to improve lines of communication between central Government and local responders during the response to an incident..
Background
Defra has overall responsibility for policy and funding of the flood risk management service in England. Delivery is through a range of partners, principally the Environment Agency but also to a lesser extent local authorities and internal drainage boards. The Environment Agency uses Defra funding to undertake a range of measures both to reduce the likelihood of flooding (eg physical defences) and also to mitigate the consequences of flooding (eg through flood forecasting and warning systems, public awareness campaigns and preparing for flooding emergencies). Defra and the Environment Agency also seek to influence others to improve resilience to flooding of the national power, transport etc infrastructure. Taken together, these approaches help reduce flood risk overall (flood risk being defined as a combination of likelihood and consequences).
This portfolio approach to reducing flood risk is a major element of our Making space for water programme and recognises that it is not sustainable economically, technically or environmentally to adopt a single approach of just building more and higher defences. Whatever decisions are taken with respect to strategy and no matter how much is invested, it would be unrealistic to believe that flooding can be eliminated. Unfortunately, we can be sure that extreme events will continue to cause flooding in the future.
To test our preparedness for such emergencies, the Environment Agency, Defra and other partners undertake national and local level exercises. This included Exercise Triton held in June 2004 to test our ability to respond to, amongst other things, major coastal flooding from tidal surge.
Defra and the Environment Agency are also playing a major role in the Cabinet Office led Capabilities Programme which is seeking to build the capability of all key players, across the country, to respond to a range of serious emergencies, including flooding. A national capabilities survey has been conducted and the results are being assessed. Defra chairs the Capability Programme workstream on emergency planning and response to flooding.
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 formalises a number of duties on local authorities, the emergency services and other organisations involved, including the Environment Agency, in responding to any emergency. Amongst these are contingency planning and risk assessment for emergencies at the local level, including flooding.
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Page last
modified:19 May 2008
Page published:23 March 2005