To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2008, Official Report, column 730W, on Flood Control: Finance, for what reasons insurance companies do not have direct access to data from the national flood and coastal defence database. (208450)

The Environment Agency’s National Flood and Coastal Defence Database contains some information about individuals such as names and addresses. Insurance companies are therefore not permitted direct access to this information as it falls under the Data Protection Act 1998.

In order for insurance companies to have direct access, significant changes would have to be made to the database to ensure that access to personal information is limited.