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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the Environment Agency did not deploy mobile pumps to York when the fixed pumps in that area were insufficient.

All 8 of the fixed pumps at the Foss Barrier were fully operational during the onset of flooding in York. The capacity of these pumps is sufficient in all but the extreme conditions which were experienced in December 2015. It is an assessment that the speed and the rise of the water level of the Foss would have overwhelmed the capacity of any potential temporary pumps, particularly given the design of the barrier, which restricted the area available for pumps.