Quickpoints
Flood Risk Regulations 2009
1st March 2010
If the recent dramatic events at Cockermouth and elsewhere in the country are anything to go by, flood management issues could be deluging us for some time to come. Scores of affected businesses and private households will be hoping that new Government responsibilities introduced on 10 December by the Flood Risk Regulations 2009 (the “Regulations”), will go some way to preventing similar disasters in future.
The Regulations set out a national framework for managing flood risk. Under them, the Environment Agency (“EA”) and “lead local flood authorities” (“LLFAs”, usually the local authority or county council) are required to:
- assess all river basins for potential flood hazards;
- identify and map “significant flood risks” and potential dangers; and
- establish plans to reduce the risk to human health, the environment, cultural heritage and economic activity and reduce the likelihood of flooding.
The source of the new law is Europe; but before implementing the EU’s 2007 Floods Directive (the “Directive”) into national law, the Government carried out a consultation to determine which UK authorities should be responsible for key aspects. Whilst most respondents agreed on the general approach there were calls for an agreed national standard to determine what is meant by “significant flood risk”. The EA will now be responsible for this. The Department for Farming and Rural Affairs will be responsible for issuing formal guidance to advise LLFAs on their obligations. LLFAs in turn will be required to publish all preliminary assessments by December 2011 and flood risk and flood hazard maps by December 2013.
Member States were required to transpose the relevant parts of the Directive into national law by November 2009. To avoid further delay, the Government was forced to transpose the Directive into national law by means of this secondary legislation. It hopes to produce primary legislation, consolidating the Regulations with other relevant law at some later date.
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