- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 7 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what involvement it has had in the designation of assistance centres or pre-positioning of generator capacity to support communities during times of severe weather.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not designate assistance centres or make decisions regarding the pre-positioning of generator capacity.
These issues are rightly for the front line responders, principally Local Authorities, to consider following any emergency. In the Scottish Government's June 2022 update to the Storm Arwen Review, we noted that "All LRPs (principally via Local Authorities) have a wide range of pre-identified rest or assistance centres, with associated arrangements for activation.”
They are supported in this by the energy distribution companies, who deploy their own generator capacity during emergencies to minimise the impact to the public.
The Scottish Government’s Preparing Scotland guidance on Care for People, available at ready.scot, also provides a wide range of guidance to responders on the effective activation of these capabilities if required.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 7 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential for streamlining the mechanisms for coordinating requests for, and offers of, resources and assets at a national level during times of severe weather.
Answer
The overall response landscape in Scotland is set out in our guidance document “Preparing Scotland - Responding to Emergencies”.
A review of this suite of guidance is currently underway. The review, which is being undertaken in consultation with resilience partners, will consider whether the inclusion of additional mechanisms for the coordination of mutual aid should be built into the arrangements.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 7 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment or review it has undertaken of any processes for sharing briefings and information during circumstances that challenge the usual methods of communication.
Answer
The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) places a statutory duty on responders to cooperate and share information.
There are several technical layers of fallback capabilities in place for communication during circumstances that challenge the usual methods of communication. However, work continues to review current arrangements and ensure they are resilient to a wide range of risks. The existing resilient telecommunications plan for Scotland is currently under review, led by Police Scotland.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 6 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish Water has reviewed its emergency generator contingency plans in (a) general and (b) relation to pumping stations.
Answer
As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked its Chief Executive to respond. His response is as follows:
Scottish Water regularly reviews its generator strategy across the country for all water and wastewater treatment works to minimise disruption in the event of wide scale power outages. Significant work has also been undertaken to understand the medium to long term investment needs. This has identified additional sites that will receive a standby generator, or a hook up, to allow quicker deployment of temporary generators at pumping stations when needed.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 6 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it can confirm the membership of the network of menopause specialists, including the representative of NHS Grampian.
Answer
The National Menopause Specialist Network is open to healthcare professionals with a special interest in menopause. The Network currently has over 55 members with representatives from all mainland Health Boards.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 November 2023
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on eliminating long waiting times for NHS patients.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2023
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 31 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reviewed the current distribution and transmission network infrastructure standards and guidance, including those for vegetation management and overhead line designs, to identify any economic and efficiency improvements that could increase network resilience to severe weather events.
Answer
The Energy sector is reserved to the UK Government and therefore the resilience of the UK’s energy network is the responsibility of the UK lead Government department, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
The Scottish Government contributed to the Storm Arwen Ofgem review and supported the recommendation that work is undertaken by the Energy Emergencies Executive Committee (E3C) to review current distribution and transmission network infrastructure standards and guidance, including those for vegetation management and overhead line designs, to identify economic and efficient improvements that could increase network resilience to severe weather events.
Any further information relating to progress of this recommendation is a matter for Ofgem.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what online resources and training it (a) has provided and (b) plans to provide to help individuals, community groups and the voluntary sector to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.
Answer
Our emergency planning portal, ready.scot, was updated in June 2022 to include a new "Learn" section to support the public, community groups and voluntary sector partners by raising awareness of emergency resilience structures and processes, and helping them to understand how they may participate in an effective and joined up response to an emergency. Between March and April 2023, we also ran a series of 4 online community resilience workshops which were attended by approximately 240 participants.
We will continue to work with the sector, and in particular Local Authorities, who have the lead role on engaging with local communities, to understand their training needs and provide additional resources if required.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what engagement it has had with energy network operators and the wider utilities sector to review their processes for (a) establishing restoration plans and timelines during times of severe weather and (b) communicating regular updates to responders and the public.
Answer
The Energy sector is reserved to the UK Government. This limits the Scottish Government ’ s ability to directly engage with energy network operators and ask for a review of their processes.
However, the Scottish Government does regularly engage with UK Government Departments and the energy network operators in Scotland along with the wider utilities, particularly during severe weather events, where we encourage and emphasise the importance of accurate restoration plans and timelines.
In addition, we continue to work closely with the UK Government lead departments when they are developing statutory reporting arrangements and will make clear the requirements of the Scottish Government during a severe weather response.
The Scottish Government also supports the three Regional Resilience Partnerships (RRPs) who coordinate communications between Scottish Government, utility companies and categorised responder organisations who are working in affected areas during emergency responses. In this role the RRP coordinators engage with stakeholders on restoration plans at a local level as well as in the statutory requirement of category one responders to communicate with the public in emergency responses.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 October 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 30 October 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what improvements it will make in relation to increasing the amount of weather-related advice and information that it shares.
Answer
The Scottish Government, via its Ready Scotland digital channels, runs a year-long communications campaign with a specific focus on severe weather.
The aims of the campaign are: to highlight risks associated with particular severe weather conditions and recommend actions people can take to minimise the negative knock-on effects; to promote responsible behaviours; and to raise awareness of information, advice and guidance about what to do in advance to prepare for, respond to and recover from severe weather emergencies.
Since 2022 each campaign burst has been complemented with a bespoke digital toolkit. They contain pre-made social media content providing the most important and relevant weather-related practical advice, signposting users to the Ready Scotland and partner websites where they may find further guidance. The toolkits are shared with partner organisations, who we understand regularly promote this Scottish Government-branded content from their official social media accounts, therefore assisting in maximising the reach of this key messaging.
