Hansard

I warmly commend the committee for its thorough investigation and report, which are certainly helping to ensure that flooding remains firmly on the Parliament's agenda. The report contains many useful and important recommendations that we are considering with great care. We have now published our initial response to the recommendations and will continue to build the committee's work into our thinking in the time ahead.

We welcome this morning's debate on the ever-increasing threat of flooding in Scotland. Floods inflict devastation on people's lives, on communities, on property and on Scotland's precious environment. As Roseanna Cunningham said, to understand the seriousness of the issue, we need only look at the devastating impact of last summer's floods in England and Wales. There is no doubt that Scotland will be able to learn valuable lessons from Sir Michael Pitt's review, which was published just this week.

We must remember that flooding is a natural process that has been made more problematic by human activity. Historically, we have constructed dams, straightened rivers, built on flood plains, constructed artificial drainage systems and removed natural vegetation. Now we must assess how we can deal with those man-made problems in the most sustainable way in the decades ahead.

Research into climate change tells us that we can expect an increase in the flood risk for all types of flooding. Given that that increased risk stands to affect Scotland's economy and society as a whole, how we manage it is one of the biggest challenges that Scotland faces in the 21st century. Tackling climate change and the rising sea levels and extreme weather events that it causes, which have consequences for communities both in Scotland and around the world, is also a priority for this Government. That is why we plan to introduce a climate change bill.

Those of us who represent communities that have experienced severe flooding will know that the committee has confirmed such communities' view that the present statutory framework is not up to the challenge. Legislation from the 1960s is not fit for purpose in the 21st century. That is why we have decided to take a completely new approach to flood risk management in Scotland. We all know that a number of key players deal with the many sources of flooding, but there is a lack of co-ordination of the various powers and duties that exist under different pieces of legislation. That lack of co-ordination is the result of the absence of a national framework within which our local authorities, Scottish Water, SEPA and others can take decisions on the management of flood risk.

The bill that we will introduce in September will change all that and will establish a modernised and sustainable approach to flood risk management. It will address many of the concerns that the committee's report highlights. The bill will encourage sustainable flood management at a catchment scale, allowing local authorities and others to take the best possible approach to the flood risk in their areas. The options will range from traditional defences in urban areas to improved flood warning and natural flood management measures where appropriate. The bill will make available to the public and the responsible authorities better information on the risk and consequences of flooding from rivers, the sea, extreme rainfall events and groundwater. It will improve flood risk management planning at the strategic level and ensure that flood risk management plans are prepared for all areas that are at a significant risk of flooding. It will also transfer the enforcement responsibilities under the Reservoirs Act 1975 to a single national body and introduce a compulsory post-incident reporting system, which will create a uniform approach to enforcement of that act throughout Scotland.

We set out many of our proposals for those changes earlier this year in "The Future of Flood Risk Management in Scotland—A Consultation Document". In addition to the formal consultation process, we developed our proposals with the assistance of the flooding bill advisory group. Of course, we also held stakeholder events throughout Scotland. At those public meetings, we heard at first hand the views of individuals who have been affected by flooding and we intend to learn from their experiences.

We are extremely grateful for the consideration that the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee gave to flooding and flood management during its recent inquiry. I welcome the recommendations in the committee's report, which are generally in line with the proposals that we have developed for the bill and with the results of our public consultation. I will comment on some of the committee's key recommendations. We agree with the recommendation that SEPA should be given the role of competent authority and that it should take the lead at a national level on flood risk management. However, local authorities will be identified as responsible authorities for flood risk management and there will be scope for designating other bodies, such as Scottish Water, as responsible authorities and giving them a duty to collaborate to deliver flood risk management plans. Co-operation and collaboration between the bodies that are involved in flood risk management are essential, so that will be one of the core elements of the flooding bill. We agree that catchments should be the basis of flood risk management. The flooding bill will give SEPA the responsibility for identifying appropriate catchments for managing flood risk.

We agree with the committee that the Scottish Government should retain a national budget to fund research and other overarching flood management initiatives. However, it remains our view that local authorities' expenditure on flood risk management should be supported through the local government settlement. It will then be the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources that are available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the agreed priorities in its single outcome agreement.

The committee recommended that the Scottish ministers remain involved in the process of approving proposals for strategic flood prevention schemes. We have considered that issue with great care and taken full account of the responses to the public consultation. We agree that our present process is not working, but we consider that the committee's proposal is not necessarily the best way forward. One main concern with the current process for flood alleviation schemes is the length of time that it takes for such schemes to complete the required statutory process. The responses to our consultation on the future of flood risk management showed that a clear majority, including a majority of local authorities, considered it appropriate to take a local authority-led approach to the approval of flood risk management measures, rather than retain the existing process of ministerial confirmation.

Therefore, the bill will establish a new local authority-led approval process for flood risk management measures, which will enable the Scottish ministers to call in proposals, but only where appropriate. That must be right. Ministers should be involved when an issue cannot be resolved locally—that is a valid role, but it is not a valid role to have to approve every single local authority proposal. We simply do not see how that can accelerate the process. As Parliament is aware, the Scottish Government's intention is to stand back from micromanaging the delivery of local authority objectives. The new approval process in the bill will ensure that the Scottish ministers meet that goal while maintaining a role in the process of approving proposals for flood risk management measures, when necessary.

The new statutory process that will be set out in the flooding bill will streamline procedures by enabling deemed planning consent. The process should also shorten the time that it takes to get approval for non-contentious measures. In doing so, it will continue to ensure that individuals and organisations who are directly affected can object to proposals, without allowing the approval process to be extended unreasonably.

We welcome the committee's recommendation that the Scottish Government establish further pilot studies to assess the contribution that natural flood management measures can make at catchment scale. We acknowledge that natural flood risk management is an important component of sustainable flood management. Detailed studies across a range of catchment scales are required to establish a credible body of evidence on how natural flood risk management could sit with other proven, sustainable, catchment flood risk management measures. We are in the process of establishing a natural flood risk management working group, which will advise on future pilot studies to improve our understanding of the contribution that natural flood risk management can make to reducing flood risk. The forthcoming bill will enable the most sustainable approach to flood risk management to be taken in each case.

The Rural Affairs and Environment Committee has asked us to consider a number of other policy issues that do not relate directly to the bill, as its convener, Roseanna Cunningham, pointed out. I confirm our commitment to address those issues in due course and to continue to work with the committee on the way forward.

We all share a desire to prepare Scotland better for the threat of flooding. We look forward to working with the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee, the Parliament and the rest of Scotland in the times ahead to achieve that end. Flooding is one of the biggest threats facing Scotland in the 21st century. It is a threat to our people's lives, to our property, to our communities and to the environment. It is also a global issue. We look forward to working together to tackle those issues head on in the times ahead.