Send the following to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
your final drought plan
your environmental assessment
your environmental monitoring plan (if you’ve done one)
The Secretary of State will pass it to the Environment Agency for review.
If your plan affects Wales, send your plan to the Welsh ministers, who will pass it to Natural Resources Wales for review. You must wait to hear back from the Secretary of State or the Welsh ministers before publishing your plan.
You may need to hold a public hearing or inquiry if there are unresolved issues with your drought plan. The Secretary of State or the Welsh ministers will decide if a hearing or inquiry is needed.
How to publish your drought plan
Before publishing your plan you must:
follow any written directions from the Secretary of State or the Welsh ministers
give yourself enough time to make final checks - this will depend on what kind of changes you need to make and whether you’ve received any written directions
You must publish the drought plan on your company website and in paper form. Send electronic copies of the plan to anyone you’ve consulted. Send paper copies if it isn’t possible to send electronic ones.
You should also:
make several paper copies available at your main office
advertise the availability of paper copies on your website
bring the drought plan to the attention of anyone else it’s likely to affect
Revise and review your drought plan
You should review your drought plan every year, whether or not there’s been a drought. You should also periodically run exercises to test your drought plan.
The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales perform drought exercises to test their own plans and encourage others to join them. Contact them to find out more about taking part in joint drought exercises.
Contact
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Drought Plan, c/o Water Resources Policy, Area 3D
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR
water.resources@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Welsh ministers
Welsh Government
5th Floor
Tŷ Hywel
Cardiff Bay
CF99 1NA
customerhelp@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Environment Agency
National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY
enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk
Natural Resources Wales
c/o Customer Care Centre
Ty Cambria
29 Newport Rd
Cardiff
CF24 0TP
enquiries@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk