Chamber and committees

Flood protection schemes are primarily a matter for local authorities, however the Scottish Government is committed to supporting work that helps protect the people of Scotland from the effects of flooding.

To that end, the Scottish Government introduced the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 which is the most substantive change to flooding legislation in 50 years. It ensures that communities and businesses across Scotland benefit from a modern and sustainable approach to flood management that is suited to the needs of the 21st century and to the impact of climate change.

The publication in December 2011 of Scotland’s first National Flood Risk Assessment was a significant milestone in the implementation of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. For the first time, we have a national picture of flood risk across Scotland, which will help us to target future efforts to plan and invest in reducing impacts in areas most vulnerable to flooding.

Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020 provides strategic direction at a national level through eight national priorities for road safety in Scotland, which are being delivered through 96 commitments. This is supported through our Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board and our Road Safety Operational Partnership Group. It allows local partners to address specific local issues in conjunction with national action to make an optimum contribution to reducing fatalities and casualties on Scotland’s roads.

Safer road design, improved speed management, continued maintenance and a better provision for vulnerable road users are amongst the steps being taken to reduce numbers of injuries and fatalities on Scotland’s roads.

Transport Scotland assesses the safety performance of the trunk road network on an annual basis by screening all locations where three or more accidents have occurred in a three year period. Further investigations are carried out and where appropriate, mitigation measures are installed. This ensures that the limited funding available can be targeted at those locations that provide the greatest accident savings.

Aberdeen / Aberdeenshire / North East Scotland

Road Safety Grampian is a partnership with the local authorities of Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray as well as Grampian Fire and Rescue Service and Grampian Police. The Road Safety Unit actively visits schools, colleges, universities and a substantial number of local businesses to deliver a wide spectrum of effective and innovative Road Safety presentations.

There are a wide range of road safety inputs and initiatives delivered in both local authority areas. This starts with support for school inputs from nurseries to secondary schools, colleges, universities and local organisations/companies. In 2011, Road Safety Grampian delivered 562 road safety inputs, to over 17,000 people, in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Some of this was through initiatives such as Safe Team, Safe Drive Stay Alive (SDSA), Driving Ambition, Young Driver Roadshows, Bikesafe and Operation Zenith. SDSA, Young Driver Roadshows and Operation Zenith are in partnership with the local authorities. There is also a range of engineering projects delivered by the respective local authority roads departments.

The partnership also issues press releases on a variety of road safety issues from seat belt use to alcohol and pedestrians. It takes part in national Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland campaigns and promotes those to the local media. There is also input to student teachers promoting road safety in schools and highlighting the resources available to them. Head Teachers are encouraged to deliver cycling training in their schools and to cover road safety in the curriculum. Work includes involvement in the local Drink Drive Rehabilitations courses, and using a “Seat Belt Sled” (funded from Transport Scotland’s Road Safety Framework budget) to promote seat belt wearing, as well as using “Beer goggles” to simulate the effect of alcohol when walking or driving. In addition, sessions using a Brake Reaction Timer are also run, to demonstrate the amount distance required to stop a vehicle at a variety of speeds.

This local work is supported by Road Safety Scotland’s fully-integrated media campaigns including television, radio and online platforms.

From 2007, a number of previous specific grants, including specific flood funding, were rolled up into the capital grant which is now payable to authorities as a General Capital Grant. The funding commitment made by the Scottish Government, for projects which had commenced prior to 2007, is reflected in the grant allocation in each Spending Review period. This includes the Aberdeen Bay project. Local authorities are free to allocate the General Capital Grant to reflect their capital investment needs.

Reflecting the significant funding needs of major flood projects the Scottish Government agreed with COSLA that for the current Spending Review period (2012 to 2015) a sum should be made available from within the General Capital Grant to fund major new flood protection projects (£73 million). Local authorities applied for funding against agreed criteria circulated to all local authorities on 5 December 2011. Neither Aberdeen City nor Aberdeenshire Council made an application for funding in the first round. An announcement regarding the next round of applications is likely to be made early in 2013.

Allowance is also made within the General Revenue Grant for funding flood prevention but it is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-09955 on 24 October 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Elements of Aberdeen Crossrail will be delivered through the Aberdeen to Inverness Rail Improvements Project. Phase one, which I announced on 21 June 2012, will provide enhanced commuter services into each city and new railway stations at Dalcross (near Inverness Airport) and Kintore in Aberdeenshire between 2014 and 2019.

We will look to develop further cross Aberdeen services through future phases of both the Aberdeen to Inverness rail improvements project and the Aberdeen to Central Belt rail enhancement scheme.

The improved rail service timetable from December 2012 delivers significant improvements to services between Dundee and Aberdeen. From 9 December 2012, five more trains will call at Portlethen Station and two extra services will be introduced on Sundays between Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

The dates and times of the seminars referred to in The Telegraph report are:

24 July – 10.00am to 12.30pm

30 July – 2.30pm to 5pm

8 August – 10.00am to 12.30pm.

They were attended by Scottish Government staff who are working on issues relating to constitutional reform.

The seminars referred to in The Telegraph report were routine FOI training seminars, developed and delivered by staff in the Scottish Government’s FOI Unit and attended by government staff who are working on issues relating to constitutional reform. No special advisers or ministers had any involvement.

The cost of developing the “constitutional reform FOI seminars” was minimal, because they were the same as the routine FOI training sessions which are delivered regularly by the Scottish Government’s FOI Unit to government staff who handle FOI requests, not just those working on issues relating to constitutional reform.

The Scottish Government does not record the time spent by officials attending or delivering this type of routine training event, or the cost of that time.

The “constitutional reform FOI seminars” referred to in the Telegraph report are in fact the same as the routine FOI training sessions which are delivered regularly by the Scottish Government’s FOI Unit to government staff who handle FOI requests, not just those working on constitutional reform. This type of training has been routinely provided by the FOI Unit since before the FOI Act came into force on 1 January 2005, to ensure that staff were fully aware of their obligations and responsibilities from when the act came into force.

These seminars aim to give staff an overview of the Scottish Government’s obligations and responsibilities under FOI legislation, and the detailed guidance and other support which is available, followed by a discussion of some examples of FOI requests relating to the work of the team attending the seminar, to give them a practical understanding of how to handle FOI requests in accordance with the legislation.

The slides for these seminars, and the examples discussed in the “constitutional reform FOI seminar” are published on the government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Information/FOI/Training.

In May this year, three-year resource planning assumptions (through to March 2015) were issued to all local authorities. This will enable each council to take the lead in devising a locally led programme of social and affordable housing developments, based on the priorities identified within Local Housing Strategies (LHS) and Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIP).