To ask the Minister for Infrastructure, pursuant to AQW 11522/17-22, why the guidance referred to prevents her from naming the nine reservoirs in need of urgent intervention.

The ‘National Protocol for the Handling, Transmission and Storage of Reservoir Information and Flood Maps (June 2018)’ provides guidance on the release into the public domain of detail that may expose potential vulnerabilities in reservoirs. This includes being aware of the aggregation of information in the public domain which, when combined with information available from other sources, would provide information that would increase the security risk to those vulnerable reservoirs.

My officials’ view is that disclosure of the exact locations of the nine reservoirs in need of urgent interventions would increase that risk.