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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much maintenance activity has been carried out on Somerset’s Main Rivers in the last a) year, b) 5 years and c) 10 years.

Since the flooding of 2013/14, over £47 million has been spent on operating flood defences and maintaining rivers in Somerset. This includes £4.7 million this financial year and over £24 million in the last five years.

This includes the daily operation and maintenance of hundreds of flood defence assets across the Somerset Levels and Moors and on the coast, the clearing of vegetation from river channels, the management of flood storage reservoirs and the deployment of additional pumps after heavy rainfall. In addition to this, the Environment Agency also provides a flood warning service and incident response 365 days of the year.