asked Her Majesty's Government:

What steps they are taking to reduce the problems of (a) urban drainage; (b) sewers; and (c) gullies in addressing the threat of flooding and the unblocking of spillways. [HL575]

We will review approaches to urban drainage as part of the upcoming government water strategy, Future Water, due to be published in early 2008. This will take into account recommendations from the independent review of the summer flooding being undertaken by Sir Michael Pitt.

To support this work, the Government, along with UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR), are spending £2 million on 15 integrated urban drainage pilot studies around the country to test new approaches to reduce the risk of urban drainage flooding. The pilots are intended to clarify responsibilities for urban drainage management and are due to complete in spring 2008.

For 2005-10, Ofwat has allowed water and sewerage companies a programme of nearly £1 billion to safeguard homes against the risk of sewer flooding. This would resolve or mitigate every known high-risk problem of internal flooding from overloaded sewers where companies' plans confirmed action was needed by 2010. The Government have announced their intention to improve management of the overall sewerage system by transferring private sewers and drains draining to the public system into the ownership of water and sewerage companies.

Gullies are provided to drain water from roads and their maintenance is the responsibility of the relevant highway authority. The term spillway is most commonly used in the design and operation of reservoirs where it is important to have sufficient overspill capacity to maintain the safety of the dam structure. In the context of urban drainage, it is important that the design of the urban fabric allows safe routes for the outflow of excess surface water. Planning guidance encourages this though it can be difficult to achieve in established developed areas.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How much money has been made available in each of the past three years for flood management of rivers in the United Kingdom. [HL682]

Flood risk management is a devolved matter and Defra has policy and funding responsibility in England. Funding is made available to manage risk from both rivers and the sea. Information on the proportion invested in flood management of rivers is not held. The table below shows the budget allocation for Defra flood defence budgets for the past three years.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How much money designated for flood prevention measures remained unspent at the end of each of the past five years. [HL683]

The Defra budget allocations and outturn figures for flood defence in the past five years are shown in the table below: