Chamber and committees

Storm Arwen review - correspondence from the Deputy First Minister

Letter to the Convener from Deputy First Minister John Swinney, 16 December 2021

Dear Convener

Thank you for your letter of 10 December to the First Minister. I am pleased to advise that work to review the response to Storm Arwen is already well underway.

This review will collate and examine the lessons identified through formal debriefing as conducted by Local Resilience Partnerships, the voluntary sector and other public agencies as required. The review will only examine issues which relate directly to the Storm Arwen response, and only where these relate to Civil Contingencies issues.

The Scottish Government will consult widely with responders and other key partners, and will compile relevant lessons into a single national report, which will be published so all responders can reflect on the lessons identified. This report will be followed up by a second report in June 2022, which will review the lessons identified to assess whether these have been actioned by Local Resilience Partnerships and their members.

I expect the report to cover the following themes:

• The role of Local Resilience Partnerships in the response
• The speed and scale of the response
• Public communications, telecommunications, and interagency communications, including coordination and information flow
• The identification of vulnerable customers and welfare provision
• The role of energy companies
• The role of Scottish Government, with particular reference to SGORR
• Engagement with the voluntary and community sector

Recognising that we are early in the winter and other poor weather can be expected I aim to publish a review paper with recommendations as early as we can in 2022, subject to other demands relating to the pandemic and other emerging resilience priorities.

Yours sincerely

John Swinney