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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she has taken to prepare for the risk of flash flooding following drought conditions.

The Flood Forecasting Centre improves preparedness by providing early warnings of conditions that could trigger flash flooding, through daily flood guidance statements and the new rapid flood guidance service. Longer-term flood outlooks are improving and support flood response planning for emergency responders and the public. The Environment Agency uses the latest weather forecasts from the Met Office, and its flood forecast models to help inform incident management decisions such as issuing Flood Alerts and Warnings. The Environment Agency’s new Forecasting and Warning Service launched in May 2026 has improved our forecasting, modelling, and warning functions. It is supported by major digital updates and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches.