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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has produced a recent risk assessment for the impact of canal embankment breaches on narrowboats.

Responsibility for the safe operation of canals rests with the navigation authorities. In the case of the Canal and River Trust, Defra officials meet the Trust’s senior management team to discuss the Trust’s work and use of the Government grant funding, as well as engaging regularly with the Trust throughout the year on any matters as they arise.