To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what contracts the Environment Agency’s Geomatics Group has with local authorities. (290832)

The Geomatics Group undertakes commercial contracts for a range of external clients including local authorities. The names of contracting organisations are commercially confidential.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the Environment Agency’s Geomatics Group’s public task is. (290833)

The Geomatics Group is a specialist business unit within the Environment Agency that supplies high quality, geospatial data and customised services to the Environment Agency, Government agencies, non-governmental organisations and the commercial market.

Its range of products can be used in a wide variety of geospatial applications including:

Environmental management (flood risk modelling, coastal erosion, risk assessment, vegetation monitoring);

Local planning applications;

Risk and crisis management (emergency flood response);

Infrastructure site selection (wind farm, utilities);

Archaeology and national heritage;

Thermal heat loss surveying;

Urban visualisation;

Reservoir assessment;

Forestry and farming.

The group is reinforcing the work the Environment Agency is currently undertaking to identify and evaluate areas at risk from flooding across England and Wales. By identifying drainage patterns and water flow, it will help predict which areas and structures are most at risk from flooding in different weather conditions.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff are employed in the Environment Agency’s Geomatics Group. (290834)

The Geomatics Group within the Environment Agency employs a total of 40 staff.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the (a) turnover and (b) profit of the Environment Agency's Geomatics Group in 2009-2010. (290835)

The expected total turnover of the Geomatics Group for 2009-10 is £4,482,000. This includes work undertaken for the Environment Agency.

Geomatics Group makes no profit from work undertaken for the Environment Agency and the level of profit on work undertaken for external customers is commercially confidential.