Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Official Report 765KB pdf

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Topical Question Time

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Severe Weather (Sea Defences)

1. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to reinforce sea defences following the recent severe weather. (S4T-00181)

With your forbearance, Presiding Officer, I want to express my sympathies to those who were affected by the weather at the weekend—in particular, the family of the man on the Voss Sailor who was killed as a consequence of the weather.

On land, the severe weather has impacted on property and infrastructure and has caused disruption to lives and businesses. The storms, which affected the whole east coast, have been reported by many as being the worst in a lifetime. I commend the harbours, local authorities and front-line responders, as well as many people in local communities, for the speed of their responses and for their work to pick up the pieces afterwards.

During the weekend, I chaired two Scottish Government resilience room meetings, which brought together key agencies and the emergency services to monitor developments on the ground and to co-ordinate our response. In the immediate aftermath of the weekend’s severe weather, the Scottish Government is collating an assessment of the damage. As part of that, Richard Lochhead and Keith Brown have visited the most affected ports and harbours. Following those assessments, and with the further information that has been received from other harbours, the Scottish Government will continue to work in close partnership with councils and agencies. We stand ready to provide assistance in any way we can.

I am sure that people from Shetland to East Lothian will welcome the Scottish Government’s actions. I hope that the minister can apply the principle of preventative spend in strengthening coastal defences and adjacent drainage after assessing the damage. The repair costs for breached and weakened sea walls are part of that, but I hope that the minister will urgently make funding streams available from national and local assets to increase the resilience to severe-weather events of many ports, harbours and sea fronts.

I acknowledge Rob Gibson’s points. I am pleased to announce that John Swinney, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, confirmed yesterday that the Scottish Government is activating the Bellwin scheme, which is a discretionary scheme to give financial assistance to councils that face undue financial burdens as a result of large-scale emergencies. Aberdeenshire Council and Moray Council have already made representations to the Scottish Government as a result of the severe storms of the weekend. Mr Swinney has said that he looks forward to working with councils that apply to the Bellwin scheme to ensure that resources are made available as appropriate.

On Mr Gibson’s point about preventative spend, the Government recognises such spend’s importance in managing flood risk, which is why we have tasked the Scottish Environment Protection Agency with carrying out a national flood-risk assessment for Scotland. The understanding that the assessment will give us of where flooding is likely to occur and of its impact when it occurs will allow us to target our efforts in managing the risks. An agreement with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities separately identified that local authorities can now bid for funding for new schemes in excess of £2 million; a total of £73 million is available on top of the £53 million of funding that was allocated to existing projects, which was included in local authorities’ general capital grant allocations.

I thank the minister for that list of potential funds. I hope that he can take into account the economic impact on vulnerable coastal settlements and jobs. The more extreme sea and weather conditions that we are now experiencing on our coasts are not being coped with by antiquated infrastructure that needs adaptation and mitigation for climate change, which was not recognised when that infrastructure was built. There is therefore a special need for us to assess what the costs of that will be.

As Rob Gibson is well aware, businesses in onshore fish processing and the oil and gas sector have been badly affected by the most recent incident. My sympathies go to them. The Scottish Government expects local authorities to take into account the likely effects of changing climate. That is an important point in designing or upgrading their flood and coastal protection, including designing schemes to allow adaptation to deal with climate change at some point in the future. Interventions and approaches that are not sustainable in the long term should be avoided. It is worth mentioning that on Friday we announced that the Government is funding a programme to assess risk in coastal-flood planning. We are considering how we can accelerate that to assist local authorities in understanding the scale of the risk to their areas.

The minister mentioned that his colleague the Minister for Transport and Veterans made a welcome visit to North Berwick yesterday to see the damage to the harbour there. If Mr Wheelhouse speaks to his colleague, I think that Mr Brown will explain, having seen the emergency repairs that have been made to the damaged south-west sea wall, that the long-term solutions to the problems at North Berwick are to replace the sea defence boulders on the south-east with a proper—higher—sea wall. To do so would impose significant strain on East Lothian Council’s capital budget, so I would be grateful if the minister could confirm that the Scottish Government would look favourably on an approach by East Lothian Council for Bellwin or other funding to support the project in order to provide long-term sea defences at North Berwick.

I acknowledge the scale of the weather’s impact in North Berwick. I have not seen it first hand, but I have seen footage of the damage to the harbour and I know that it was severe.

As I understand the Bellwin scheme, it would not necessarily cover the scale of a project such as Iain Gray mentioned, although I will be happy to meet him to discuss what would be possible. I think that Bellwin is designed almost to make replacements on a like-for-like basis where there has been damage to harbour walls. The fund is principally meant for things such as gaps in insurance excesses that councils cannot meet and to fund revenue costs, but it is not ideally suited to sustaining large capital projects. Such projects are more in the territory that I referred to in my answer to Rob Gibson.

I will be happy to engage with Mr Gray and my colleague Derek Mackay to look at what is possible under existing capital funding through local authorities.

The minister will be aware that the storm damage has extended well beyond ports and sea walls. I am not sure whether he is aware that, as result of the recent storms, around two miles of sheep dyke on the northern isle North Ronaldsay, in my constituency, have been severely damaged. Some support has been provided through a variety of mechanisms, including the local council. Can the minister advise whether the Bellwin scheme or the other schemes that he identified may be productive ports of call for the people of North Ronaldsay in seeking help to repair the damage to that antiquated, but still very necessary, structure?

I am grateful to Liam McArthur for mentioning the damage in North Ronaldsay, of which I was not aware. I have not had any discussions to date about application of the Bellwin scheme to such a project, but I will be happy to take that forward and to write to Liam McArthur about what might be possible in Orkney, if that would be of assistance.

Other members have referred to effects on vulnerable communities. In Peterhead in my constituency we have the world’s biggest offshore oil support base, which has been severely affected by the storms. That could have major economic impacts locally and more widely. What practical assistance can the Government provide that would be relevant to the situation in Peterhead?

That issue was of some concern to the First Minister when we discussed the incident at the ministerial resilience room meeting on Sunday. Through agencies including Scottish Enterprise we are able to work with local businesses to assist where possible when they have difficulty in implementing their disaster recovery plans and other measures.

Clearly, in an instance such as that in Peterhead, assistance in terms of providing alternative accommodation is absolutely crucial at this time, to ensure that business can continue to function. I will undertake to have dialogue with Stewart Stevenson about what we can do in that regard.

In Lossiemouth, 15m of the sea wall was destroyed at the weekend. Can the minister assure me that its repair will be funded under the Bellwin scheme?

In Kingston, which is also in Moray, the sea defence has reduced, with properties and beach roads seeing a vastly reduced shingle bank that many people believe will not protect them from another storm. Will the Scottish Government provide financial assistance to Moray Council as a matter of urgency to replace the lost shingle, and will it enter discussions about longer-term options?

I identify myself with the issue that Mary Scanlon raises—I mentioned Kingston at the meeting on Sunday. I am aware of the recent history of the need to invest in the shingle bank there in order to protect the town. That will be taken into account as part of the representations that Moray Council is making to John Swinney and the Government on an application for Bellwin money.

As I said to Iain Gray, Bellwin funding will not necessarily be available for large-scale capital projects, but it may be available to meet the exceptional costs that Moray Council has to deal with in the recovery from the incident. In that respect, I am sure that we will be in a position to help Moray Council. I hope to keep a dialogue going with Ms Scanlon to keep her informed about what action is being taken regarding Moray Council and its progress.

The minister will be aware that there was significant damage in Stonehaven, but he may not be aware that there is a unique local charity there—the Maritime Rescue Institute—that not only provides the local coast guard but trains lots of folk. It lost both its boats over the weekend—although I gather that it has got one back—and suffered a lot of damage to its buildings. As a local charity, it is in the same position as others will be in that it must pay excess money on its insurances. The charity will be asked to find many thousands of pounds. Is that something with which the Government may be able to assist?

Indeed. I am having an on-going dialogue with the Association of British Insurers, and we hope to meet it in February to discuss a number of issues relating to flood protection for communities throughout Scotland. I will clearly be concerned if such voluntary sector organisations face punitive insurance premiums or excesses in order to secure flood insurance. I will be happy to meet Nigel Don to discuss specifics in relation to the organisation that he mentioned, and to raise the issues that come out of the meeting with the ABI in February.

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Musical Instrument Tuition

2. To ask the Scottish Government what provisions it is making with local authorities for the allocation of the additional £1 million for musical instrument tuition in schools. (S4T-00172)

The Scottish Government is providing £1 million to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for the purchase of musical instruments. The conservatoire will consult local authorities to ensure that instruments are allocated to areas of greatest need. That will enable many more aspiring young musicians in schools to learn to play musical instruments.

The Government is also setting up an instrumental music group to look at issues to do with delivering instrumental music tuition in schools, including the question of charges for pupils who are sitting Scottish Qualifications Authority music exams. The Government believes that the shared ambitions and good will that now exist on those issues will result in a solution.

I welcome the Scottish Government’s announcement. It is clear that one of the most important commitments that the Scottish Government has made with that announcement is on the removal of fees for pupils who are studying for SQA exams in music. Will the cabinet secretary clarify whether that removal will be brought into force straight away?

I pay tribute to the Scotland on Sunday newspaper and its let the children play campaign, which has been instrumental in drawing attention to a wide range of issues in that regard. The group that I mentioned will have a remit to look at a range of issues. The remit is being discussed with its chair who—I can announce—is David Green, who is a former leader of the Highland Council.

One of the issues is charges for pupils who are sitting SQA music exams. I have made it clear in questioning at the Education and Culture Committee, for example, that that development, which exists in five local authorities, is undesirable but not illegal. I therefore have no power to impose any new situation on those authorities. I hope that the group, with the discussions that are taking place—including this type of discussion—the presence of the fund and the Royal Conservatoire’s work with local authorities, will move those local authorities to adopt the position that the other local authorities take so that they do not charge for such things. The sooner they make that decision, the happier we all will be.

It is good to hear that discussions are under way. Has the cabinet secretary considered the opportunity to set up music trusts on a similar basis to leisure trusts? I know that his colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs has shown interest in that. Is that a possibility for at least paying some of the fees that are due?

Music trusts are a separate issue, but I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs is working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on such issues. I would be happy to ensure that the two developments communicate and feed off each other. The core aim is to ensure that young people get the chance to learn to play music, and to enjoy and be involved in it. We all want that to happen. If there are barriers to that, I hope that the group, working with others, will overcome them.

I very much welcome the Government’s announcement of £1 million for music tuition, but how will it safeguard those who are affected by that? Many local authorities currently make very good provision for students, and we would not—of course—wish those students or, indeed, those local authorities to be penalised in any way because others have not been so helpful in the past.

I do not intend that the positive announcement should penalise anybody, and I encourage Patricia Ferguson to be positive about the development—it is good news. I hope that there will be no diminution of provision in any local authority that currently does things well and that authorities that have a different approach will look at that provision and discuss it with us, as some are already doing, and with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities—the people who run the fund and the instrumental music group. I hope that common sense will prevail. The announcement is not intended to diminish anybody’s opportunity, but to increase opportunity.

I, too, am very pleased to welcome the new funding for instruments. Music tuition is a life-affirming experience and should be open to all young people who want it. However, constituents of mine have raised with me concerns that special schools may not have access to the new instruments. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that the arrangements that are made with local authorities will include access for special schools?

I can see absolutely no reason why that should not be the case, and I am happy to say that the intention is to be as broad as possible. Music is life affirming for every child, and every child should have the opportunity to learn it.

I, too, welcome the announcement. Like Patricia Ferguson, I am in the fortunate position of representing a constituency in which there are no charges for musical instrument tuition.

What reassurances can the cabinet secretary give that there will be support for councils such as Orkney Islands Council, which has not taken uncomfortable decisions, in the sense that it has avoided making difficult choices about where spending is allocated, in order to ensure that good-quality provision and free provision are maintained over the medium to longer terms?

Virtue is its own reward. Authorities that are doing tuition well and properly will be able to continue to do so and there is nothing in the announcement that will threaten that. The situation is quite the reverse; we are encouraging other councils to come to the table and to be as positive as Orkney Islands Council.