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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information the Environment Agency has received from the Oceanographic School at Southampton University on hightide levels at Lymington harbour.

The Environment Agency (EA) has used a range of information from the Channel Coastal Observatory (CCO) based at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, the majority of this information is freely available from the CCO website (https://coastalmonitoring.org/southeast/).

The information received includes water levels, tide gauge, wind and wave data, as well as land and sea-bed profiles and aerial photography.

The information from two historic storm events has also been received which provides details about the most powerful waves experienced in the area. Past events do not necessarily represent the upper limits of what may occur in the future. Therefore, the EA has also received further analysis from the CCO that adjusts historic events to show what storms of greater severity may be like in the future.