The draft Flood and Water Management Bill: sixth report of session 2008-09: Vol. 1 Report, together with formal minutes

House of Commons papers 555-I 2008-09

Corporate Author:: Great Britain Parliament House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Author:: Michael Jack (chairman)
Publisher:: TSO (The Stationery Office)

The Committee finds the draft Flood and Water Management Bill (published as Cm. 7582, ISBN 9780101758222) to be a confusing mix of measures, many of them poorly drafted; a patchwork that seems to address individual identified problems rather than deriving from a coherent and comprehensive strategy to implement the vision set out in "Future water: the Government's water strategy for England" (Cm. 7319, ISBN 9780101731928). Scrutiny of the Bill is difficult and compounded by omission of the secondary legislation necessary to implement the full provisions of the Bill and the fact that many policies are still under development. On flood and coastal risk management the Government approach is over centralising, taking powers from democratically accountable bodies and concentrating them in the Environment Agency. Furthermore, the Committee doubts that there is sufficient Parliamentary time available before the next general election in which to get the Bill on to the statute book. Defra should instead consolidate its thinking and consultation, develop and refine the Bill, and present a comprehensive sustainable water management Bill in the next Parliament.

Extent	[2], 57p.	ISBN	9780215541024
Size	N/A	Price	£12.00
Binding	Paperback	Published	23 Sep 2009
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