Question reference: S4O-05533
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 27 January 2016
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Current status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 4 February 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will undertake a national strategic review of flooding infrastructure and management following the latest incidents.
Answer
Although the impacts of the recent flooding are still being felt and will continue to be assessed over the coming weeks, we have not received any indication that any of Scotland’s flood defences were overwhelmed in the way that has happened during the extreme flooding events in England, and which has prompted the UK Government’s review.
In any case, all the existing flood defences in Scotland were assessed in 2007 as part of the establishment of the Scottish Government’s Flood Defence Asset Database.
Since then, a new National Flood Risk Assessment has been undertaken by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and the resulting flood risk management strategies were published in December 2015. For the first time ever, we have a national picture of flood risk across Scotland. This is a major step forward in our understanding of flood risk, and will make sure that Scotland is as prepared as we can be, to deal with any such future events which may become more frequent with the onset of climate change.