APPENDIX 5
Supplementary Memorandum submitted by
the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (L 7)
FURTHER INFORMATION FOLLOWING MR MORLEY'S
EVIDENCE SESSION TO AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE ON 28 NOVEMBER 2000
QUESTION 79:
Table 1 of MAFF's "Progress Report of Implementation
of Recommendations in Sixth Report (Session 1997-98): Flood and
Coastal Defence" set out Government expenditure on flood
and coastal defence over a period of years. This expenditure is
used by the operating authorities to fund the majority of flood
and coastal defence works—ie to protect against flooding
from rivers and the sea and protection against coastal erosion.
It is also used to fund running costs and other programme expenditure
incurred by MAFF and the operating authorities.
Other income includes monies received from farmers,
who pay drainage rates or charges to internal drainage boards
and the Environment Agency (Anglian Region); interest receipts;
and there are also annual transfers in and out of balances held
by the Environment Agency. It is therefore not possible to relate
the expenditure figures in the table directly to particular services.
Instead, the following table shows the best
estimates of expenditure of MAFF and the operating authorities
on coastal flooding, river flooding, coast protection, with appropriate
loadings for flood warning and general operating costs of the
operating authorities.
(£ million)
| 1999-00 | River flooding (tidal and non-tidal)
| Coastal flooding |
Coast protection | Total
|
| MAFF grant (other expenditure omitted) |
20.2 | 16.3
| 33.9 | 70.4
|
| Environment Agency | 239.0
| 36.0 | 0
| 275.0 |
Internal Drainage
Boards | 40.4
| 0 | 0
| 40.4 |
Local Authorities
own spend | 13.0
| 1.5 | 10.5
| 26.0 |
| TOTAL (%) | 312.6 (76%)
| 53.8 (13%) | 44.4 (11%)
| 411.8 (100%) |
QUESTIONS 80-81:
Planned MAFF expenditure on flood and coastal defence over
the period of 1996-97 and the following three years ranged from
some £75 million to £85 million. In these years savings
emerged elsewhere in MAFF and, because of the progress of major
capital works, it was possible to increase the spend on flood
and coastal defence beyond the level originally planned. 1996-97
was a prime example of such a year, with significantly increased
grant payments being made to the Environment Agency (for sea defences
at Happisburgh to Winterton) and local authorities (for coast
protection works at, for example, Hurst Spit and Hythe).
8 December 2000
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