Memorandum submitted by the Met Office
SUMMARY
1. The Met Office provides meteorological,
climatological and related input to the Agency which helps it
to discharge its responsibilities for flood defence and flood
mapping.
2. Further, the Agency and the Met Office
have a collaborative framework which facilitates an exchange of
operational information and guides joint research activities which,
by undertaking collaboratively, deliver enhanced benefits to the
public.
3. The procedures for warning the public
in relationship to fluvial and coastal flooding are well developed,
with the Agency providing warnings which are informed by outputs
from the Met Office.
4. The procedures for warning the public
in respect to pluvial flooding events are less well developed
that for other flood warnings. Currently there is no consistent
method for warning or informing the public on pluvial flooding
events, and there would be benefits from bringing this in line
with other types of flood events.
5. There are a number of areas where the
Met Office and the Agency believe the coordination of their collaborative
activities could improved. These include:
— a more integrated rainfall-to-catchment-to-coast
approach to flood protection;
— both improving air quality in our
cities and enhancing our Chemical, Biological, Radiological and
Nuclear (CBRN) civil contingency response through a more joined-up
approach to air quality and dispersion modelling; and
— working together to improve our understanding
of the impacts of climate change in order to deliver more rounded
policy guidance on effective mitigation and adaptation strategies.
6. More detailed information on these points
is attached in Annex 1. This summarises recent communications
between the Chief Executives of the Met Office and the Agency,
which seek to identify areas for improving the delivering of services
to both the public and to Government Departments.
7. The Met Office has identified, as a key
theme within its Corporate Plan, to work more closely with the
Agency. The on-going dialogue with the Agency aims to put in place
a clearer framework and timescale for the delivery of these improvements,
which we hope will be reflected in the Agencies new Corporate
Plan.
Met Office
December 2005
| 
