Storm Bert: National Preparedness
Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Baroness Smith of Llanfaes(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
At the moment we are reviewing the whole criteria around flood funding, because it is not fit for purpose and certain areas that require funding are not necessarily eligible to get it. We are looking at it in the whole.
Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (PC)
My Lords, is the Minister confident that the Government are prepared and ready to handle red warnings?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The Government are confident that they are working extremely hard to learn from previous events to improve responses as they go forward. That is why we have set up the Floods Resilience Taskforce; we want to ensure that we do the best job we can.
Storm Bert
Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Baroness Smith of Llanfaes(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
I start by wishing the noble Baroness a very happy birthday. She makes an extremely good point. The maintenance of existing flood defences is critical, but we also need to make sure that they are fit for purpose and fit for the future.
Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (PC)
My Lords, leading on from some previous questions and points made about Wales, although this is a devolved matter, there needs to be recognition that coal tips are a legacy of the mining past of Wales. The Minister might point to the £25 million announced recently in the Budget, but that pre-dates what just happened over the last few days, with the coal tip hitting the community of Cwmtillery. There is the precedent that the previous UK Government gave £9 million when Storm Dennis hit and a coal tip in Tylorstown collapsed. I press the Minister: will His Majesty’s Government be providing funding for this specific incident? Comments have been made by other Members about the willingness to pick up the phone to the Welsh Government. Will any funding include financial support for these communities?