Cornwall Council has responsibilities for assessing and managing flood risk through 2 pieces of legislation:
- The Flood Risk Regulations (2009)
- The Flood and Water Management Act (2010).
Under the Act, Cornwall Council is 'Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA)' for Cornwall. All LLFAs in England and Wales had to submit a Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) to the Environment Agency by 22 June 2011.
The Regulations put in place the EU Floods Directive (2007) in UK legislation. The Act applies many recommendations from the Pitt Review (2008). The Pitt review considered lessons learnt from the summer floods of 2007 that affected much of England and Wales.