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 is taking steps to assess the safety of dams and reservoirs given potential climate impacts, including monitoring and standards; and whether her Department has emergency preparedness for dams and reservoirs.

Reservoir safety in England is regulated under the Reservoirs Act 1975 for which the Environment Agency (EA) is the Enforcement Authority. Reservoir owners and operators are required to employ specialist civil engineers to build, supervise, inspect, and maintain their reservoirs to strict standards

Defra and the EA are leading a Reservoir Safety Reform Programme, which proposes updates to the safety regulation of reservoirs. This programme is based on recommendations from the Independent Reservoir Safety Review Report.

Further work with reservoir owners since the review includes developing on-site emergency flood plans for raised reservoirs, new guidance issued based on the available evidence of the impact of climate change on dams and reservoirs, and producing an updated research strategy for dam safety, with climate change a core theme.

Further work on safety management practices is in development, ensuring our reservoirs are safe and resilient in a changing climate.