Scotland lays out severe-weather protection measures

Scotland’s resilience partnerships – which include the emergency services, local authorities and utilities – have put measures in place to protect communities from the effects of severe weather ahead of the coming winter.

The measures, laid out in a recent report, include a winter-readiness exercise for emergency responders across every area in Scotland to be carried out by the end of November. They follow on from a review of the response to Storm Arwen which caused damage, injury and death across the east of Scotland and England in November. The review set out 15 recommendations for the Scottish government and its partners.

Other measures called for in the report included:

• an online learning and training hub to help prepare, communities and voluntary groups deal with emergencies;

• a new process to monitor and evaluate Scotland’s resilience system annually; and

• increased integration and engagement with the voluntary sector, and expansion of local directories of assets and capabilities to support resilience activity.

Scotland’s cabinet secretary for justice and veterans, Keith Brown, said: “This report demonstrates clearly the range of work that is underway to ensure that lessons are learned. Our responder community, including our blue light services and our local authorities, will put these recommendations in place and we will support them to ensure our resilience arrangements continue to strengthen to protect communities.”

Chair of the Scottish Resilience Partnership, Jim Savege, said: “Significant additional work has been invested this year into working with voluntary organisations and communities to ensure their resilience and their ability to deal with incidents has been enhanced.”