Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with National Highways on the effectiveness of using balancing ponds and drains to help prevent flooding on highways.

National Highways have not made an assessment on the effectiveness of using balancing ponds and drains in the prevention of highway flooding. Balancing ponds are used on the network to manage the risk of downstream flooding and drainage is designed to remove surface water from roads as quickly as possible and to minimise flood risk for receiving environments.