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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 30 June (HL1196), what steps they are taking to encourage citizen science and public observations of real-time environmental changes to monitor water management and flood risk.

This Government is investing in the power of citizen science to improve environmental understanding and generate high-quality evidence to solve complex water system problems. The Environment Agency has trained citizen scientists to carry out flow monitoring, enabled members of the public to share insights including on flow conditions using its pilot project BluePrint and encouraged use of external flow monitoring apps. This Government has also doubled support to catchment partnerships and provided funding for Water Restoration Fund and Water Environment Improvement Fund projects which support development and analysis of citizen science in local areas.