To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs where urgent calls dealt with by the Worthing emergency control centre of the Environment Agency will be routed following the closure of that office. (149296)

[holding answer 12 July 2007]: The Environment Agency has two principal offices in Worthing, a regional office in Guildbourne House and an area office in Saxon House.

The southern regional emergency control centre is based in Guildbourne House, where staff receive and route calls associated with incidents and emergencies.

These calls will continue to be dealt with there until at least June 2008, at which point a decision will be taken as to whether to transfer them to the well established National Customer Contact Centre in Sheffield.

However, if a local incident occurs these will continue to be managed by local centres within the affected region.