Chamber and committees

The Scottish Flooding Forum, funded by Scottish Government, already makes a broad range of resources available to individuals and households. These cover preparation and protection, what to do if flooding occurs, recovery and guidance on actions communities can take together. The SFF also have an online Property Protection Advisor tool.

If someone lives in an area that may flood they can also contact the Scottish Flooding Forum enquiry telephone line for advice, information and support to protect their property.

No.The Scottish Government’s international network delivers tangible benefits to our people, businesses and institutions, and accounts for less than 0.02% of the Scottish Government’s overall resource spending plans.

The Strategy will be delivered via an implementation plan that will focus on the six priority action areas, including a range of core deliverables and outcomes, starting with the establishment of the Flood Advisory Service. That implementation plan will be developed with partners over the coming months.

The National Flood Resilience Strategy does not make reference to ‘pilot programmes’.

There have been no comparative analyses undertaken of spending relative to similar devolved administrations.

The National Flood Resilience Strategy sets out our vision for working with partners to deliver shared outcomes for people and places and supporting a broader range of flood actions where evidence suggests they can provide a positive contribution to improving flood resilience.

This aligns with our National Planning Framework 4 whereby blue and green infrastructure are supported as an integral part of early design and development processes; designed to deliver multiple functions including climate mitigation, flood prevention and water management.

Scottish Government consulted on policy proposals regarding water, wastewater and drainage in early 2024, with respondents broadly agreeing with the proposals that Scotland’s drainage system should be a combination of grey and blue/green infrastructure, with significant support for blue/green infrastructure. Sustainable drainage systems (SUDS) are already required in new developments, aligned with NPF4, and along with retrofitting blue/green infrastructure into urban spaces, can help make a positive contribution to flood resilient places.

In addition to contributing to our climate change targets and net zero ambitions by capturing and storing carbon, Scottish Government recognises that restoring Scotland’s peatlands will provide many additional benefits: including reducing risks of flooding and wildfires as well as supporting nature, biodiversity and improving water quality.

Scotland has a significant area of peatlands, and they are an important method of mitigating and adapting to the linked climate and nature emergencies. The Scottish Government has committed funding to restore 250,000 hectares of degraded peatlands by 2030.

When opening an international office, we consider a range of options to best represent Scotland’s interests while ensuring we are delivering value for money.

Working with the UK Government as part of the FCDO platform currently provides the preferred overall solution for our requirements and seven of our eight overseas offices are based within a British Embassy or High Commission.

The international and European relations budget principally comprises the International Development Fund, the budget lines for the international network offices, an advice and policy budget which includes operational costs for the Directorate for Culture and External Affairs, and funding in support of the Brand Scotland Partnership.

In terms of our international development work, we believe Scotland should play its part in tackling global challenges like climate change, pandemics, poverty, injustice and inequality, all of which remind us of our global interconnectedness and the need for the Global South and North to work together. Supporting international development and humanitarian action is one of the most important ways Scotland can be a good global citizen and our financial investment in our international development partner countries, and for humanitarian crises is a key part of this.

Other international activity, including the work of the international network offices, is directed according to priorities established in Scotland’s International Strategy. We will report on delivery of the actions identified in that strategy in an annual report for 2024-25 onwards, which we intend to publish by the end of 2025.

Evaluating Scotland’s nation brand is a multi-faceted process. Marketing and communications activity, policies, legislation, experiences of those who come to Scotland and marketing activity beyond Brand Scotland all play a critical role in enhancing Scotland’s reputation.

Since 2008, the Nations Brand Index (NBI) has been used to measure Scotland’s reputation internationally. In addition, we measure the effectiveness of communications and marketing campaigns against SMART communications objectives, to be delivered among our core target audience in priority markets (Germany, France, USA) against a specific timescale. This includes a bespoke brand tracker in key markets and a range of additional KPIs, partner conversions, social media metrics and website analytics tracked on a monthly and annual basis.

Scottish Government promotes community-led action and works to embed community resilience through a number of connected policy areas which enable collaboration between community resilience groups, voluntary sector organisations, Government and statutory responders. Scottish Government has committed up to £5.5 million, in 2024-25, to fund a network of Climate Action Hubs to transition to low carbon, reduce emissions, and improve resilience in the face of ongoing climate change and extreme weather events. Community groups, charities and social enterprises lead climate action hubs across Scotland.

The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009, sets out the minimum requirements for SEPA and local authorities to consult as part of the Flood Risk Management Planning Process. It also sets out the specific requirements for consultation related to flood protection schemes.

More broadly Scotland’s National Planning Framework 4 is clear that our places can only work for everyone if the views of all users are properly understood.

Planning authorities are preparing new local development plans (LDPs). Planning authorities should consider how these plans can best meet the needs and aspirations of the different people who have an interest in a place. Requirements for community engagement are set out in detail in the LDP Guidance. That guidance makes clear that the planning authority is expected to involve a range of people at all stages in the preparation of the LDP. The authority must engage with the public at large as well as specific organisations and societal groups.

The Scottish Government encourages use of the National Standards on Community Engagement as best practice.