(2) what the threshold level of flood risk is above which households and businesses are included in the Floodline Warnings Direct database;
(3) what estimate he has made of the number of households and businesses excluded from the Floodline Warnings Direct database in error which are above the threshold level of risk from floods;
(4) what estimate he has made of the number of households and businesses included in the Floodline Warnings Direct database in error which are below the threshold level of flood risk.
The Environment Agency (EA) incorrectly sent a letter about Floodline Warnings Direct to 50 households at moderate flood risk. This represents 0.1 per cent. of the recent Floodline Warnings Direct recruitment mailings that the EA has sent to households across England. The EA have confirmed this as an error isolated to Congresbury, North Somerset and has contacted the 50 householders concerned to apologise.
The EA takes into consideration the source, the risk and the impact of flooding on a community when evaluating where it provides a flood warning service and the method by which flood warnings are communicated to the public.
The EA offers Floodline Warnings Direct to those households and businesses with a high risk of flooding. We define high risk as flooding at, or greater than, the 1 in 100 year return period (1 per cent. probability of occurring in any year) for flooding from rivers and the 1 in 200 year return period (0.5 per cent. probability) for flooding from the sea.
However, in some locations the EA has offered the Floodline Warnings Direct service to households and businesses up to the Extreme Flood Outline which represents the 1 in 1,000 year flood (0.1 per cent. probability) due to the predicted impacts of flooding on the community.
The EA does not offer the flood warning service to properties outside the Extreme Flood Outline. Therefore, the EA has not excluded any households or businesses in error from Floodline Warnings Direct which are above the threshold level of risk from flooding.
In March 2007, the EA mailed 9,166 of the 195,000 properties registered with Floodline Warnings Direct in England who no longer require warnings as they are not within the Extreme Flood Outline. The EA has not included these 9,166 properties in Floodline Warnings Direct in error as since the properties were included their level of flood risk has been updated with more accurate information.