From Water Briefing

The NRR provides information on the most significant risks that could occur in the next two years and which could have a wide range of impacts on the UK.

Published by the Cabinet Office on 18^th December, the National Risk Register – 2020 edition provides an updated government assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different malicious and non-malicious national security risks (including natural hazards, industrial accidents, malicious attacks, and others) that may directly affect the UK and its interests over the next two years.

The NRR is the public-facing version of the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) – a classified cross-government and scientifically rigorous assessment of the most serious risks facing the UK or its interests overseas.

Introducing the NNR 2020, MP Penny Mordaunt Paymaster General said:

“The impact of some of these risks can be felt beyond our home or local area, even stretching beyond the borders of any single country. COVID-19 has changed people’s lives in the UK and across the globe, likely with long-lasting consequences.

We must look to the future and consider how we adapt to those changes and take advantage of new opportunities, while also improving our ability to tackle existing and emerging risks.”

“We should not underestimate the challenges that a more extreme climate will have on our lives, the economy and our environment”

The NRR describes climate change as a significant crisis facing the global community which the country will need to continue to confront head-on in the UK amid warmer winters and hotter summers, along with more variable rainfall and more severe storms.

Climate change has already altered the risk of certain types of extreme UK weather and further changes are expected in the future.

“There is a trend toward wetter winters and drier summers, leading to an increasingly complex and challenging picture…..

“Extreme weather – flooding, storms, heatwaves – already causes significant disruption in the UK every year, so we should not underestimate the challenges that a more extreme climate will have on our lives, the economy and our environment”, the NRR says.

Flood risk – “everywhere in the UK is at risk from at least one form of flooding”

On flood risk, according to the NRR everywhere in the UK is at risk from at least one form of flooding, principally from three main types of flooding:

• coastal (where high tides and storm surges combine to cause the sea to flood inland)
• rivers and streams, known as ‘fluvial flooding’ (where waterways overflow their banks into surrounding areas)
• surface water (where rainfall overwhelms drainage systems)

The NRR draws attention to the winter of 2019–20 which was wetter than average for the UK, causing major flooding in November and December 2019 and this year’s severe weather in February and March 2020.

Between 8 February and 16 February, most of the UK saw the equivalent of an entire month’s rainfall. On 17 February 2020, the Environment Agency issued 632 flood warnings and flood alerts: the highest one-day total since the system went live in 2005.

Commenting on what’s being done to address the risk, the NRR says the government will have spent over £1 billion in England on maintaining flood defences and £2.6 billion on better protecting 300,000 homes. Upcoming action includes a further £5.2 billion investment starting in 2021 by the government in a six-year capital investment programme for flood defences in England.

In addition, increasing numbers of new construction projects have flood resilience embedded from the outset, according to the NRR. It also points out that guidance on resilient construction is available through an industry-led code of practice for retrofitting and new builds, plus two relevant British Standards for resilient construction (BS85500:2015, due to be updated in winter 2021) and testing of resistance products (BS851188:2019).

Click here to download the National Risk Register – 2020 edition