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Flooding Bill to be strengthened
22/01/2009
The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill will be strengthened to ensure sustainable approaches to flood management are delivered.
Opening the stage one debate on the Bill in Parliament, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment Richard Lochhead, outlined plans to strengthen the legislation.
Mr Lochhead said:
"Research into Climate Change tells us that flooding could become more frequent and more severe. We must act now to minimise the impact of future flooding on Scotland's people, its services, its environment and its economy.
"This Bill represents the most comprehensive modernisation of flood risk management in Scotland for over 40 years. It is a co-ordinated approach which will deliver flood management at a catchment scale, allowing local authorities and others to take the best possible approach to managing flooding in their area.
Minister for Environment, Michael Russell continued:
"We thank the Scottish Parliament's Rural Affairs and Environment Committee for its diligent scrutiny of the Bill. Many of their recommendations are in line with the Government's own thinking on areas where the Bill needs strengthened.
"We will strengthen the link between the duty to reduce flood risk and the implementation of flood risk management plans. We will also ensure that there is a more specific reference to sustainability in the Bill's long title."
The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on September 30, 2008. It will streamline and speed up the development and implementation of flood risk management measures, introduce a more sustainable and modern approach to flood risk management and create a more joined up and co-ordinated process to flood risk management throughout Scotland.
Specific measures in the Bill include:
- A framework for coordination and cooperation between all organisations involved in flood risk management
- Assessment of flood risk and preparation of flood risk management plans
- New responsibilities for SEPA, Scottish Water and local authority functions for flood risk management
- A revised, streamlined process for flood risk management measures
- New methods to enable stakeholders and the public to contribute to managing flood risk
- A new single enforcement agency for the safe operation of Scotland's reservoirs
Proposed Government amendments to the Bill include:
- More explicit responsibilities for assessing drainage features, including Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems
- Scottish Water to be given specific responsibility for assessing sewerage flooding
- An enabling power to the Bill to require reservoir undertakers to produce reservoir plans to set out the 'on-site' steps operators would take to mitigate any harmful impacts from an uncontrolled release of water
According to MET Office records, going back to 1914, the summers of 2007 and 2008 were the wettest consecutive summers on record for the East and West of Scotland. Record levels of rainfall were recorded in Gogarbank in Edinburgh, Salsburgh in North Lanarkshire and Charterhall in the Scottish Borders in August 2008.