Tomorrow sees the second reading in the House of Lords of the Flood and Water Management Bill, and I have the job of leading for the Liberal Democrats.

The second reading is a general debate (the first reading which took place before the half-term holiday is a formal affair, to say it’s arrived from the House of Commons and order its printing).

This is one of those fairly non-political but important bills on which the Lords usually do quite a good job, looking at the detail and testing how it will work in practice (but see below).

It’s about planning for flooding and coastal erosion. Things that need to be done to prevent it or cope with it, and who will do this.

There’s to be a flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy for England, and local flooding strategies. The Environment Agency will be responsible for the national strategy and lead local authorities for the local ones – in our case it’s Lancashire County Council.

There’s some important stuff about creating sustainable drainage systems (“Suds”!) for new developments which could make quite radical changes to the way they are planned.

So there are lots of things that need to be looked at. The effects on farming, for instance, or the relationship between the county council and district planning authorities such as Pendle and Burnley; how the “suds” will work in practice, and how much of the coastline should be allowed to retreat under erosion.

As a geographer I should really be looking forward to the detailed debates in the committee stage which follows the second reading.

Except that most of it won’t happen. With Parliament due to be dissolved around the end of March, this is one of the bills that won’t get looked at properly. It will go into a curious process in the two or three days before we are all sent home, which is known as the “wash up”.

The parties get together behind closed doors in the proverbial (formerly) smoke-filled rooms and decide which new laws to let through without further ado, and which have to be dropped.

The Flood and Water Management Bill will certainly go through, but it’s a recipe for passing poor legislation that may have to be unscrambled in future.