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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the transparency of internal drainage boards.

Internal drainage boards (IDBs) are independent, locally funded and operated, statutory public bodies, with responsibility for water level management and flood risk in their areas (predominately low-lying areas across England). There are currently 112 IDBs in England.

Each IDB has a management board, overseeing operations, and ensuring good governance arrangements, including management of public finances. The management board is made up of members representing the beneficiaries of the IDBs’ work. The majority of IDBs have their own websites and they are encouraged to make minutes of meetings, financial reports and programmes of their works available to the public.

As independent public bodies, IDBs are accountable to the communities they serve, as well as coming under the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman, the new Office for Environmental Protection, and they must comply with other public body duties e.g. around financial audits and accountancy, under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. Each year these audits are published and we will explore any qualified opinions from an auditor with the Association of Drainage Authorities and the relevant IDBs.