Storm Arwen review recommendations update: October 2022

Progress update

Throughout this section, the number of each recommendation relevant to the work being described is listed in brackets within the text.

For completeness, the content below should be considered alongside the update provided in June 2022.

Events since June update

Weather-related challenges are not confined to the winter months, and since the last Storm Arwen report the record-breaking heatwave which peaked in July 2022 allowed a further test of our resilience.  While not as destructive to infrastructure as high winds, extreme heat can cause other forms of damage to power and communications infrastructure, as well as a range of health risks, and similarly required a complex and coordinated response by responder agencies. 

Responder organisations also demonstrated their flexibility and capacity for mutual aid in other areas, for example in the delivery of the Super Sponsor Scheme to provide safety, sanctuary and support to those fleeing Ukraine, and in the delivery of Operation Unicorn, the programme of ceremonial events to mark the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  (Recommendation 10)

Winter Preparedness Programme

Since the last update report in June, the Scottish Resilience Partnership (a national group of the most senior statutory responders and key resilience partners in Scotland) has coordinated a “Winter Preparedness Programme” to ensure that the key lessons from Storm Arwen are learned, tested, exercised and embedded ahead of the coming winter. 

Scotland is divided into three Regional Resilience Partnership (RRP) areas, which in turn are broken down into 12 Local Resilience Partnerships (LRPs). By the end of November 2022, every Local Resilience Partnership (LRP) in Scotland will have conducted a full winter readiness exercise. 

The scenarios for these exercises will reflect many of the challenges associated with Storm Arwen, and will rehearse the activation of partnership structures, the requesting of mutual aid, communications with the public, identification and care for vulnerable people and working with the voluntary sector.

The exercises will bring together local and national partners, including the blue-light services, local authorities, utilities companies, transport operators, the Met Office, and others. (Recommendations 1, 4, 8, 9, 10, 13)

Alongside this more formal exercising programme, a wide range of work is ongoing across resilience partnerships to continually strengthen the processes and relationships on which all effective responses are built.  This work is informed by the Risk and Preparedness Assessment process, which this year ensured that the recommendations from the Storm Arwen Review were formally incorporated into the workplans of the resilience partnerships.  More about this process can be found in our June update report. 

For example, LRPs continue to develop their understanding of all existing radio networks and capabilities among responders, while also developing further their links with voluntary sector capabilities, such as RAYNET, an organisation of amateur radio users who seek to assist the emergency services when other forms of communications are compromised.  This process will seek to ensure that the loss of telecoms is mitigated as much as possible during a response.  (Recommendations 4, 5)

Individual organisations are also pursuing additional training and familiarisation.  All of Police Scotland’s Emergency Procedures Advisors were invited to an event in September to review and test Police Scotland’s severe weather plans; Military Liaison Officers have briefed resilience partnerships across Scotland on the process and thresholds for requesting military aid, should that be necessary; familiarisation sessions have been held for utilities company staff; and many local authorities continue to provide advice and guidance to community resilience groups in their area. (Recommendation 6)

This is by no means a complete list but indicates the breadth of activity that is already taking place and which will continue at a local level beyond the scope of this report.  

Scottish Government winter monitoring

As we move towards winter, the Scottish Government’s own resilience operation will begin an enhanced engagement programme with resilience partnerships and key national organisations, which will run from October 2022 through to March 2023.

This process will not replace any real-time incident management processes, which will remain with the resilience partnerships and the Scottish Government Resilience Room, but will provide a standing forum for heightened monitoring of the resilience system, and will act as a focal point for the early identification and resolution of any issues arising which cannot be dealt with at a local level. 

It will also ensure the swift discussion of lessons arising from weather events occurring during the period, and ensure that any learning can be quickly shared.  Lastly it will provide an opportunity to continually review our information sharing processes and ensure strong links are maintained between Government and local responders even in the most challenging circumstances.  (Recommendations 3, 11)

This process will be evaluated in April 2023 and if successful will be implemented every winter.

Public communications

Learning from the North of Scotland

The north of Scotland, in experiencing the worst of Storm Arwen, also faced some of the most significant public communications challenges in recent years.  The simultaneous loss of both telecoms and power across parts of the region led to difficulties in providing advice and information to the public, and required the quick development of creative solutions. 

Following the storm, public communications specialists from the responding agencies in the north of Scotland have led on a range of improvements in this area, including revising their processes for mutual aid to ensure all possible resources are used, and ensuring that local areas retain the capability to deploy more traditional means of public communication if required (for example printed notices, flyers, and radio).

This best practice has been shared both in writing and through verbal briefings with public communications specialists in the rest of Scotland, to ensure that lessons are not only learned in the areas affected but across the country.  (Recommendations 6, 10, 13)

New national campaign 

Throughout the winter, the Scottish Government will increase the amount of weather-related advice and information we share through our digital channels
The aims of the campaign include:

• raising awareness of different emergency preparedness resources, guidance and information available from Scottish Government and partner agencies
• proactively promoting this information to better equip individuals and communities to prepare for, deal with and recover from severe weather emergencies
• encouraging individuals and communities to take proactive steps to reduce the risks and negative impacts before an emergency occurs, as well as how to stay informed and updated during an incident

The material has been developed in consultation with Scottish resilience responder agencies and, where appropriate, has also involved close partnership working with agencies leading on specific severe weather impacts and risks.

Content will continue to issue from Scottish Government and Ready Scotland social media channels and websites throughout the winter, with responder agencies, local authorities, community groups and other organisations encouraged to share and promote the information in their local areas.

We hope that proactively providing advice in this way, even when the weather is not especially severe, will ensure that more people are aware of the support available to them and the steps to take in advance of, as well as during, an emergency.  (Recommendation 6)

Welfare checks

During Storm Arwen, the loss of power and telecoms combined with the sustained nature of the outage meant that door-to-door visits across some areas were required to ensure the welfare of those affected. 

The capability to deliver this type of large-scale response relies on a number of the issues currently being exercised by the resilience partnerships - for example swift activation of resilience arrangements, the ability to quickly assess the impact on the ground, strong mutual aid arrangements and links to community and voluntary groups, and agile public communications plans. 

Resilience partnerships are however also aware that deploying a large number of people to travel on foot to carry out door-to-door checks could itself create a risk for those involved, for example if the weather conditions remain challenging.  

As such, these checks should always be considered as part of a range of ‘care for people’ considerations and measures which are rolled out in response to any major incident, which might also for example include the provision of rest centres. 

The Scottish Government is currently reviewing its national “Care for People” guidance, which will be provided to responders by winter, and we would encourage local authorities to continue to evaluate and stress test their capacity in this area.  (Recommendation 15)

Longer term projects

Two longer term projects, both of which were in development prior to Storm Arwen, will nonetheless be influenced by those events and go some way to delivering against the recommendations in future.

Persons at Risk Distribution (PARD) 

Work to roll out the Persons at Risk Distribution (PARD) system across Scotland continues.  The system enables the swift integration of local authority social work data with NHS (National Health Service) data to assist responders in identifying vulnerable individuals during an emergency. 

The Scottish Government will continue to work with key partners, in particular Local Authorities, Health and Social Care Partnerships, and Public Health Scotland, to refresh the data sharing agreement which will underpin the live operation of the PARD system. 

Our understanding at this stage is that Public Health Scotland/NHS National Services Scotland is initiating an update process for the required Data Protection documentation, and that thereafter those Local Authorities who wish to ‘sign-up’ to the tool, will be able to access it for their areas.  (Recommendation 14)

National Community Asset Register (CAR)

Local registers of assets belonging to the community, which might be of use in an emergency, already exist across Scotland.  For example, farmers may have specific equipment which can be used to cut firebreaks in the event of wildfires.  These registers of assets, and the mechanisms for quickly activating them during emergencies, are already being actively expanded and updated by our local resilience partnerships in response to the lessons from Storm Arwen.

In the longer term, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) continue their work to expand and develop the national Community Asset Register on behalf of Scotland’s resilience community.  While SFRS cannot put a firm deadline on their initiative to strengthen the national CAR at this stage, significant work is ongoing, including work to develop a new digital platform for the service, agree the appropriate legal frameworks, and deliver training packages to those involved.  The Scottish Government will continue to provide appropriate advice and support to this project as it continues through the development process. (Recommendation 5, 7)