Press Releases

WISHART WELCOMES NEW PROCESSES IN PLACE AFTER STORM ARWEN REVIEW

News Release from Pete Wishart MP

Attn: News Desk                                                     For immediate release: 01 November 2022

WISHART WELCOMES NEW PROCESSES IN PLACE AFTER STORM ARWEN REVIEW

Pete Wishart, MP for Perth and North Perthshire, has welcomed the series of measures that have been put in place across Scotland to protect communities from the effects of severe weather ahead of winter. It follows a review of the Storm Arwen response published in January 2022, which set out 15 recommendations for the Scottish Government and its partners.

A report published on Friday updates on progress since then, with a range of improvements put in place ahead of winter. These include:

• A full winter readiness exercise carried out by emergency responders across every area in Scotland by the end of November
• A new online learning and training hub to help individuals, community groups and the voluntary sector to prepare, respond and recover from emergencies
• The development of a new process to monitor and evaluate Scotland’s resilience system annually to identify and resolve issues quickly and effectively
• Increased integration and engagement with the voluntary sector, and expansion of local directories of assets and capabilities to support resilience activity

Commenting, Mr Wishart said:

“This report is the product of months of hard work from responders, and it is fantastic to see the Scottish Government implement its recommendations.  

“Storm Arwen was one of the most extreme weather events in decades, which created the most extensive damage that most emergency support workers have ever had to respond to.

“Although such a catastrophic event was bound to cause significant challenges for response teams, the extent of the delay in reconnecting the electricity supply was nonetheless dangerously inadequate. With climate change set to make events of this scale more frequent, these new measures will be absolutely vital in ensuring our responder community is as prepared and equipped as possible.”

ENDS