To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have considered making an application to the European Union Solidarity Fund in the light of the flooding in the Somerset Levels.

A number of eligibility criteria must be satisfied before an application for support from the European Union Solidarity Fund can be made. In the case of an incident on a national scale, the cost of damages must exceed three billion Euros. In principle, an application may be made to the fund for a regional incident, though this must meet separate criteria. The population of a given region under this scheme must be large and the event in question must affect the majority of the region’s population. The Government is currently considering all the avenues for collecting any money that might be available to assist with the floods.