At the local level, fire and rescue authorities have duties to conduct risk assessments of their area as part of their integrated risk management planning process. This complements work under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, where local responders collectively consider risks, through local resilience forums. If it is concluded that there is a risk of flooding in that area, local responders, including the fire and rescue service, may equip themselves appropriately to meet that risk.
At the national level, my Department has provided the fire and rescue service with 46 high volume pumps, to extract and move significant amounts of water. We have also funded the appropriate level of training to use the high volume pumps. The high volume pumps have been used to great effect during floods.