My Lords, I tabled this amendment following discussions I had with the Country Land and Business Association, of which I am a long-standing member. It relates to what might be described as a legacy issue, to do with circumstances where infrastructure in relation to flood defence or amelioration, which currently might fall under the auspices of the Environment Agency, might at some juncture, through the operation of this Bill, and the redefinition of the Environment Agency’s functions, cease to be maintained by a government agency.
The question is: what happens with this infrastructure? It has obviously been put in there for the reason of protecting life and property, some of which may be agricultural, and other residential or other property. This amendment intends to probe what the Government’s intentions are in the circumstances in which such a situation might occur. The Minister may say that there is no question of the Environment Agency or the state abandoning those things to an uncertain fate. However, they might say, “It’s going to be down to local communities to deal with it”—and then what? How are these obligations to be transferred?
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The point behind this is that these works, whether they be ditches, dykes, sluices, banks or whatever, are very often constructed under some regulatory or other power by a local authority, possibly historically, and have been maintained at all times since then. However, they sit physically on the land of a private owner. The Country Land and Business Association is concerned that if nothing happens to them and they fall into some sort of dereliction, under the laws of nuisance there might be a liability on the owner, purely by virtue of being an owner, from some other third party who invokes the benefit and the protection of those works. That is the sum total of what this is about. The mechanism used here, which of course it would not be appropriate to try to work out in detail in the Bill, is simply to facilitate a regulation-making power by the Secretary of State in circumstances where it may be appropriate to do so. I beg to move.