Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the (a) availability of and (b) potential merits of introducing technology to enable increased height and stability of temporary flood barriers in the UK.
The Environment Agency (EA) holds over 40km of temporary barriers, with heights from 1m to 1.8m in height. Temporary barriers are only considered for use in exceptional circumstances and larger temporary barriers are not suitable to use everywhere. The EA regularly reviews the technology available to protect residents and businesses from flooding and will continue to assess what further improvements we can make on an ongoing basis.