 Mwneud hynny yn rhaid i gael ei ddesgwypeth am y cyfnodol gyda'i, yn ddigwydd ar gyfer gweithio i chi'n unrhyw gwyllseidol y mae papur. A sgwpannau hynny, mae AuKathion Fygoedd yn ddiwedd y byddai. Felly mae'n rhaid i chi'n rhaid i chi wneud hynny i cyfnodol yn ddweud ar gyfer gweithio i chi ddweud ar gyfer gweithio? Rwy'n fod yn gweithio bai'n gwyll援 ac yn rhaid i chi'n ddweud ar gyfer gweithio Ond nid yw'r sifirweith hon i'u vetrwyr gweithio, mae ylltaketh eich ddal gweithu chi'n gwasanaeth yn brofiad y cyfle i gael eich bodi cymryd ar y cyflwr i gyffredin wahanol gyda susam erbyn ar gweithu'n gweithio. Mae'r cyfle i'i gael eich cyfle i'r cyflwr i'u gweld têl yn ei bwysig i ddweud gan gweithu yn gwahanol addysg ar gyfer ion o ddesun y Jonny? Mae'n dda i gwirio ar gweithio eich cynnig oedd ar gyfer ion o dibrygiad ysgol wychwyn isu'r wythdoedd ddeic fel ymydd i chi i'r unig arnaeth y taeth. Rhaid i'n gweld rai cyfrifod ar gweithio cyfnod y cyfrifod wrthwun cyfrifod, a'r anxhod cyhoi newydd, cyfrifod amgylchiadau cyfanu i'r angrifedigau arall, a chi'n gweithio, o'r angrifedigau ar yr angrifod a'r angrifedigau ar brifedag hwnnod cyfwnol wneud.� mwy fydd yw'r angrifedigau ar y angrifedigau ar gyfer Rydyntau'r iddo i'r ddweud yn ei ddweud i'r sgrifennu eraill arwyr meddwl gyda gael'r eu gyferwyr ym 2011, a i fyfudio o ddim yn該w ffrwyr! Rhyw gwrs ac yn ddwylo pobl gennym gael y cyffredin, mewn ddefnyddiaeth y trooedd o ffarnsyn Blast Polar yng Nghymru, ddwylo honno yn ddwylo argymai Arctig, a ddwylo llyfr Green Delta yn 2012. Mae arbennidsan yn nid o ddwylo chefug ar y cyfrwyr anodol a gennym. Felly, mae'n gweithio i'r runnig. Scotland's fourth national resilience week yn a longer running preparedness campaign ready for winter in partnership with the British Red Cross and a wide range of other partners calling on everyone to make their own preparations for winter. Transport Scotland's winter service media launch was held earlier this week to promote and publicise the fact that this winter our roads will be serviced more quickly than ever when snow and ice hit. We are constantly working with our partners to improve the technology available and to predict events and also to provide early warning both to responders and to the public. We have supported the Met Office in developing major improvements to their national severe weather warning service and invested over £8 million in the floodline warnings direct scheme, improving information to the public as to when they may be at risk from flooding. On 14 August 2014, my colleague Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Environment and Climate Change, announced Scotland's first national centre for resilience, the NCR, which will build on experience developed in the southwest of Scotland to develop national capabilities focusing on natural hazards, community resilience, flooding resilience and providing research purpose and facilities through the creation of the new centre for research on resilience. We have also invested sensibly in our transport resilience. For example, as of 4 November, there were approximately 693,000 tonnes of salt in stock on either in stock or on order, and that includes the strategic salt reserve that the Government has. That represents more than double the amount of salt that was used last winter. We also have in place a range of new resources to improve intelligence, to monitor patrol and where necessary to act. The winter fleet for trunk roads will have in excess of 195 vehicles available for spreading salt and ploughing, which is the highest level ever available on our trunk roads. All of that fleet will be available to provide support to the front line and patrol vehicles, as well as to cover breakdowns and essential maintenance. During the 2013-14 winter season, 75 new state-of-the-art gutters replaced all the vehicles, and 34 of those new machines were bigger than the vehicle that they replaced, with the capacity to spread more salt. The new fourth-generation contracts winter service in the east commenced on 1 October this year, and that will follow similar principles. By the end of 2014-15 winter season, new state-of-the-art gutters will be operational across the entire country. New weather stations, temperature sensors, cameras, messaging signs, new icebreakers, a stockpile of alternative deicers and welfare kits to help anybody affected by disruption have all been introduced since 2010. The 2014 Commonwealth Games legacy has also equipped Transport Scotland with a larger pool of staff trained in resilience operations, while key parts of the network have been strengthened with increased camera infrastructure. We will build on that legacy to continually improve our response to severe events. Significant investments have also taken place on our railways and in our airports. ScotRail and Network Rail have invested more than £4 million to improve winter resilience. The airports have procured new equipment at their expense and developed specialist snow teams. We have also introduced new procedures to ensure that resources are well used and the response to challenges is as effective as possible. That is based on the successful operation of the multi-agency response team, or MART. The new purpose-built traffic Scotland control centre at South Queensferry will improve co-ordination and joint working. All motorways continue to be covered by winter patrols, which give a 30-minute response to incidents. Control rooms can monitor the temperature on key routes remotely through sensors and see the conditions live via a network of cameras. Road users themselves can keep up to date through a range of media, including internet, internet radio, smartphone updates on the move, in addition to more traditional methods. We have also worked with power and telecommunications companies to help them to build their own response capability further through improved customer service arrangements, the enhancement of key infrastructure and backup systems, and increased customer information on being prepared. It is not just cold weather, but extremely high winds can also lead to disruption. Providers here are also taking additional steps based on the lessons of previous years and the Government is investing in backup systems to ensure that responders can continue to operate effectively. We are also supporting people to keep warm in their homes in spite of increases to energy bills. Unlike the UK Government, which has scrapped fuel poverty funding, we are committing almost a quarter of a billion pounds to it in a three-year period. We remain determined to help households to stay warm and reduce their energy bills, and we are working with councils and energy companies to tackle fuel poverty. We have also developed a protocol to help to ensure that vulnerable people can be identified and prioritised should there be issues with supplies of electricity, gas or heating oil. We are also continuing with a programme of work to build personal and community resilience, investing in the future through the development of a resilience education resource that is ready for emergencies. That has already been used by schools across Scotland to help young people to assess risks and prepare themselves and their communities more effectively. We also continue to support local communities that are taking steps to build their own community resilience through the uptake of our community emergency planning toolkit, and through the provision of a range of financial and practical support to communities and also to local authorities. We have improved the operation of the Government's own emergency arrangements by reviewing the experience of recent winters and other major events. For example, we had the volcanic ash cloud, which also caused substantial disruption. We have required those arrangements to be used. There is continual development of the staffing and training arrangements for SCOR and a new approach for sharing information between resilience partnerships and SCOR when it is active. It is true to say that we are trying to learn something new each time Scotland is beset by severe weather. We also try to make sure that we do not just look at previous incidents and plan on that basis, but we try to plan for the unexpected. It has become a cliché now, but I think that we always try to prepare for the worst whilst hoping for the best, not least in relation to the weather. However, it is my view that the Government and the responder community are doing all that they can to build Scotland's resilience to severe weather for winter and all year round. At a time of severe economic challenges and environmental change, we need to show that Scotland's infrastructure and the services are ready to support our business and our people, to be the resilient Scotland that we all want to see. Thank you, minister. The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes of questions after which we will move on to next business. Members who wish to ask a question of the minister should press the request of Pete Buttern now. I thank the minister for advance copy of his statement. The minister has spoken at length about national planning events, the national resilience centre and additional facilities and plant, which will be used to keep the Trunt Road network clear, but unless councils have access to salt, machinery and people power to keep the local roads open, those expertly and efficiently cleared Trunt roads that the minister mentioned will be of little comfort to our constituents since they will not be able to access that network. Given local authority budgets, they have been cut in real terms for a number of years. How confident is the minister and the resilience of the whole transport network and not just the Trunt Road network? The minister made a brief mention of a range of financial and practical support to communities and local authorities. Can the minister outline exactly what level of financial support will be provided to local authorities to deal with adverse weather and also if there will be any contingency funds made available to local authorities who have to deal with specific extreme local weather conditions that other local authorities do not have to do? Finally, I might be wrong, but I do not think that I heard the minister mention remote or rural communities or constituents in his statement. I would just ask that what is the Scottish Government done to facilitate discussions with local businesses, farmers, road contractors and other businesses that operate with heavy plant that could be adapted in rural areas to create a much wider, localised resilience network? To take the substantive point underlying Mark Griffin's questions first, which is about resources for local authorities, I am very pleased that, given the size of the cake that we have in Scotland, councils get a bigger share of that cake than they have done in the past. Certainly, when I was a councillor, given the shape of the cake that is reduced every year, I just remind Mark Griffin that the last act of the cabinet secretary, the chief secretary to the treasury of the last Labour Government, had the advice to his successor, which is that there is no money left. That was what the Labour Government told the incoming Conservative and Lib Dem Government. I make that point because, of course, I acknowledge that there are pressure on local government budgets, but within the resources that we have, we have increased that share that goes to local authorities. It is also true to say, as Mark Griffin rightly says, that councils are responsible for the vast bulk of a road network—94 per cent of Scotland's roads or local roads. It is also true to say that, in law, they are the road's authority. We cannot just go in and start doing things on their road network, but what does happen—I hope that that will reassure Mark Griffin—is that we work jointly on those issues. For example, both in the north-east, in Aberdeen and in the south, we have contracts whereby sometimes the trunk road operating companies will salt or grit the roads for local authorities and vice-versa. That, to me, makes eminent sense. In addition to that, when we have issues of disruption, certainly I have asked, and Transport Scotland officials have asked, that our resources, if they are not being maximised or used to the maximum at that point, should be directed towards local authorities. That offers often made and not accepted for perfectly legitimate reasons, but we make that offer. Mark Griffin also mentioned rural and remote communities. I mentioned a number of things in my statement that relate to that. He made a member of the point that I was making about making sure that we can get assistance here quickly, especially when there is, for example, a lack of power, possibly water and other vital things for communications for those areas. Going back to that experience in 2010-11, the biggest challenge that we faced was really about that last mile of deliveries, especially people who were relying on our unconventional energy means, where they required deliveries to their house that people could not access. There was a great deal of joint working to try and make sure that we did that with all sorts of organisations. In relation to the agricultural communities that Mark Griffin mentioned, we did examine that quite exhaustively. There are issues to do with that, which do not apply in some of the countries, not least to do with the legal requirements and also damage to roads as well. We have been more than willing to work with those communities where they feel that there is something that they can offer to us, and we have certainly done that. We have worked in a collegiate way, and that is why we have seen an improved response right throughout the country, including those remote and rural areas. I thank the minister for his statement, and I am glad that so much effort has been put in. However, I hope that the tendency to pat ourselves in the back before a single snowflake falls does not result in me being back here in a few weeks' time lamenting the passing of a minister who simply had to resign because he believed what he was told. On the issue of salt stocks, in 2010-11, we ran out of salt. It was one of the worst winters that we would have had in a long, long time. The problem was that stocks were held at a level that were consistent with the requirements in a series of mild winters. We have now had three mild winters, and I am concerned that ambition, as far as salt stocks are concerned, might be reducing. The minister said that salt stocks had at a level twice what were used last year. How would that compare with what was actually used in 2010-11? Similarly, I am concerned also that road maintenance should be a priority. Will the minister be in a position to ensure that resources are available so that, when road conditions begin to deteriorate and port holes require to be mended, local authorities have that resource at their disposal? There are many other subjects that I could cover, but one that I wish to prioritise is the area of coastal flooding. I noticed that there is a storm warning for the northeast tonight. I also noticed that there is a full moon and there will be a high tide, and the conditions would be perfect for another flooding event in Stonehaven. Is the minister in a position to guarantee that emergency services will be on standby to ensure that communities at high risk of flooding can have the support necessary at short notice? Thank you for your questions. First of all, on the issue of salt, I will give him a breakdown if he likes the relative levels that he has had, not just in that terrible year of 2010-11 in terms of the bad weather but also the subsequent years. I do not know whether he suggests that we should have more than twice the amount of salt that we used last year or not, but, to me, it seems like a pretty good basis for making sure that we can deal with issues. It is also true to say that, because of that winter in 2010-11, everybody was looking for salt at that point. Sometimes you get, for example, the highways agency that comes in hoovers up all the available salt and that created problems for other people. What we have done is tried to make sure that we have as much salt as necessary in stock, not just salt. We have also developed other materials that we can use for temperatures below which salt is ineffective. I am confident that we have done not just through getting enough salt but making sure that we have that strategic reserve, so that, if a local authority, for whatever reason, starts to run out, it can call on that strategic reserve. Again, that emphasises the joint working that we are talking about. On the other points, I do not think that there is a sense of us patting ourselves in the back. I have tried to outline what we have done. Of course, we want to try and reassure people that those arrangements have been put in place to make sure that we can deal with that effectively. Just to make the obvious point—I did make this and so it appeared in a very different way in the media—subsequently, we are always at the risk of having disruption through weather. Scotland is not the same, as was often said, as Canada or Norway, which everyone says. They deal with snow very well while they do, but they have snow right throughout their winter period. They have a different way of dealing with it. We do have the situation with a more temperate climate in Scotland that we can have a very sudden shift between snow, freezing rain and dry periods, and that can happen very quickly. We have to try and have a response that deals with the particular circumstances in relation to our own weather systems. The other point that I think that Alex Johnson made was the local authority to road maintenance. It is the case in the past, especially in that 2010-11 period, when we had that very prolonged, very cold period that happened. There was damage done to roads, both local and trunk roads, out of proportion to what we would normally expect. I am pretty sure that, from memory that we provided additional resources to local government subsequently, we provided more to Transport Scotland for the trunk road network, and we did the same in terms of local authorities. We always have to keep an eye on that. It is the responsibility of local authorities to look after their roads, hours to look after hours, but if there is something that is exceptional, in the same way—he also mentioned flooding that we do that—we would have to look at that. Just on the point of flooding, I think that the assurance that I would give is that the responders are ready. As they are, each time we get the warnings from the MET, whether it is an amber, sometimes even a red warning. The MET office has upgraded the yellow warning for heavy rain to amber, which is to be prepared. It mentions that, in particular, South Aberdeenshire, that warning came into effect that one o'clock today will go through until seven o'clock earlier. It may have been updated since then, but the earlier warnings suggested that there was not a risk of coastal flooding, but I bear in mind the points that Alex Johnson has made and undertake to check that and come back to him, whether that has been upgraded to say that there is some additional risk. In any event, the responders are ready to respond to the circumstances as they arise. In that same severe winter of 2010-11, the A68 at Sutra, in my constituency, was closed for some four days. It is a major trunk road that is essential to many communities, for deliveries, businesses and, indeed, for connectivity between the border general hospital and Edinburgh royal infirmary. Four days to me was far too long. What specific measures have or will be taken to avoid that happening again? I remember very well the problems that were both at Hart Hill and also in the A68 at Sutra. Both of those locations have been identified as vulnerable locations, and they are also defined as areas that require special attention. Those have specific mitigation measures established within the operating company's winter service plans. Examples of that specific measure would be additional and specialist plant, which is pre-deployed when colder forecast dictate, patrols that we would operate outwith specified times and additional resources. Specifically, on the issue of salt stocks in those locations, the pre-deployed vehicles will be fully loaded and supplemented by patrol vehicles, which are also fully loaded. Our south-east operating company has salt barns at Burmure, Bilston, Glen, Tannockside, Hawke and Newtonson Boswell, as well as Gore Bridge. That stock exceeds 20,000 tonnes collectively. I also mentioned in my response to Alex Johnson that we have new materials, which can also help in relation to the example in which the member cites in relation to a four-day period of very cold weather well below the normally expected cold snap and lasting for a longer period. We have materials that operate below seven degrees below, which is the effective temperature that salt operates down to. We also have additional equipment and icebreaker, for example. Going back to the issue of the M8, the big problem is that we are trying to break the ice and get people moving again. We have learned those lessons. I am sure that if there are further incidents, we will learn lessons from that as well, but we have taken real measures to help in the situation both of the A68 at Sutra and on the M8 at Harthill. Claudia Beamish, followed by Rob Gibson. Although there has been robust funding for the floodline warnings direct scheme, the minister will be aware that the budget for 2015-16, the funding for natural assets and flooding, has remained the same in cash terms. This means that there is a 0.5% reduction in real terms. Does the minister believe that it would have been prudent, or could still be the case, that there should be an increase in the flooding budget in view of the extreme weather conditions that we have experienced? Could he also provide details, if not now, through his colleague, the minister for environment, of SEPA's 14 flooding strategies, because I was reassured by SEPA in April that those would be forthcoming this autumn? First of all, I am perfectly happy to ask my colleague Paul Wheelhouse to provide the information that the member is looking for, just to say in relation to the budget line that she refers to again, which is in Paul Wheelhouse's area. That is not the only budget line that we use for flooding. There are a number of other budget lines, including those that deal with emergency situations and contingencies in relation to the Beilwyn formula. There are a number of areas that apply to flooding, and there has been quite a substantial degree of works in different parts of the country, not least in the south of Scotland on both sides, to address the consequences of previous flooding, including coastal flooding. It is not possible, just to state the obvious, to increase every budget line every year, so you have to make choices in relation to that. Paul Wheelhouse is aware of that and is allocated to what he thinks are sufficient funds. However, as I said at the start, I am more than happy to come back to the member with the information from Paul Wheelhouse that she is looking for. During periods of rapid snow mill and heavy rain events, what actions does the minister see are needed during forestry extraction operations to protect roads from slurry and logs landing on the carriageway, and the need to keep culverts clear so as to allow safe surface water drainage, all of which have occurred recently, on routes in my constituency and elsewhere? It is a very good point. I visited the A82 just before Fort William and saw the effect of what had happened there. With very heavy rainfall and having had some logs cut very far up the hill, it was possible for those logs to travel a very long distance, and as the member rightly says, end up at the roadside. I think that it is very important for very obvious reasons that that should not be allowed to happen. We have to make sure that we have spoken with the Forestry Commission to ensure that future tree cutting is sometimes undertaken in order to protect the safety of road users. That was true also at that location to some extent. However, when that happens, any logs that are left there—I am not talking about logs prepared for timber but logs that are cut down for that purpose—are kept well away and safe from the road network for very obvious reasons. That applies not just to the trunk road network but also to the local road network. As the member mentions, it is often the case that slurry can also be responsible for that and the blocking of drains that happened recently on the A83. What we have to do in that situation is that sometimes you cannot prevent those things from happening or you cannot prevent them right across the country, but you have to make sure that you have a very quick response to make sure that that is clear as soon as possible, because if the drain is not clear, you start to get things coming out either side on to the road network, and that is something that you want to prevent. Jim Hume, Fyllbyd Rodri Cymru. Thank you. Thousands of airline passengers faced delays and cancellations after Edinburgh airport was forced to close due to heavy snow in January 2011. Last December, Prestwick was used more due to other UK airports struggling with snow. Can the minister advise what measures are in place to ensure that our airports remain open throughout the winter weather? Can I say that, with the exception of Prestwick, this is obviously a matter for the individual airport operators, and what they did after the 2010-11 winter was to go to Scandinavia in particular and look at the measures that were undertaken there. They are not all applicable here. For example, some Scandinavian airports do not take the snow off the runway, it is packed down and it is used. I have landed on those runways in the past. The snow is left there, just in the same way that it is often left on roads and people use snow chains. However, the lessons that are appropriate to Scotland were learned. There was substantial investment by Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow in relation to what they found. They have spent, I think, over £3 million on new measures. It is also true to say that during that winter that we did make an offer and made it myself to Edinburgh airport on a particular day when we had the trunk load next to the airport cleared but there were still issues at the airport itself. However, it is also the case that the equipment that we use on trunk loads is not suitable for airport runways. It is not possible for us to share equipment in that way. We do share best practice. There has been substantial investment made by the airports and, like the Government, they can sometimes be criticised for investing in equipment that is not used at least for two or three years, but they have taken the necessary precautions and I am very pleased that they have. Roderick Campbell, four by David Stewart. Minister, what practical steps can farmers take to prepare their farms for winter? In turn, what support can farmers offer the local community in the event of severe weather? I hesitate to suggest any expertise that I might have for agricultural concerns in terms of the preparations that they can take. We consult regularly with the affected communities, businesses and others about the approaches that we can take to winter. The issue of what they can offer in terms of sometimes helping with moving cars, sometimes helping moving snow to allow access on more local roads is one that we have discussed. We did find that there were some issues that prevented us from doing that on as big a scale as perhaps we would want to and also to be fair the farming community wanted to do as well, but we have worked on the basis of trying to talk to the interest groups in the NFU in particular. They have a number of other issues about using trunk loads as well that they would like to see advanced. We do consult with the farming community and if the member is aware of any issues remaining of concern they would like to see further consultation or joint working on them. I am more than happy to meet with representatives as I have done recently and discussed those issues. Can the minister identify what, if any, rural and island emergency fundings available to hard-pressed local authorities for winter resilience work? Highland council convener Jimmy Gray told me this morning that with 4,500 miles of local roads, 1,300 bridges and 32,000 children to get to school every morning, his authority struggles every winter to finance the staff machinery and the 6,000 tonnes of salt necessary to prepare for the challenging extremes of highland winters. I think that we deal with that in exactly the same way that previous administrations have. It is factored into the granted expenditure that local authorities receive and in relation to each area, whether it is an island authority or the highlands in this case, sometimes it is different in different contexts for urban authorities, we try to factor that in and we have discussions with COSLA on a regular basis to make sure that we reflect that. I do acknowledge what the member says about the particular pressures in the highlands, especially in relation to having enough salt to cover a pretty vast area and also to ensure that people can travel safely to and from school during that period. However, those things have been factored in and beyond that, if I said earlier on, an extreme weather event is exceptional and presents exceptional demands and of course the Government will always look to help local authorities in that situation. We have three members who are yet to ask a question of the minister. We have a generous allocation of time for the next debate, so I intend to make sure that time is allocated here to allow those questions to be heard. Graham Day, followed by Mary Fee. Three winters ago, efforts to clear many streets in Angus were hampered by householders responding to predicted heavy overnight snowfall by parking out in the roads rather than in their dryways. They did so believe that that would make it easier to get about their business in the morning when, in reality, all it did was create obstructions for the gritters and very often cars ended up walled in by plowed snow. Would the minister agree that there are simple common sense things the public can do to ensure that we keep Scotland moving during severe winter weather? I know our colleague Sandra White who has been trying to progress a responsible parking bill in this Parliament. I think that some of the same lessons apply. It is really for local authorities to make sure that they take up this community message although we are happy to work with them on doing that. Graham Day is quite right if you move your car out onto a local road in particular, which does not then have the space for a gritter or a snowplow to come down and you are preventing them from being able to undertake that work. I would just ask that individuals think about the consequences of where they place the cars. They want to have their road gritted and made safe. Obviously, we have to allow the plant through local authorities to get to that. If local authorities want to consider whether there is a broader message across the country, we are more than happy to look at how we can do that jointly. Mary Fee, followed by Stuart McMillan. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank the minister for advance copy of the statement. I make no apology for repeating the point that my colleague Mark Griffin made about local authorities are bearing the brunt of Scottish Government cuts against a backdrop of rising costs. My own local authority, Renfrewshire, remains one of the most underfunded local authorities across Scotland. In recent years, I have received numerous complaints from constituents that pathways are rarely cleared when winter weather is at its worst. While I welcome the news of 75 state-of-the-art gritters, can the minister tell me what additional support and funding will be made available to take into account local circumstances to ensure that my constituents, particularly the elderly and disabled, have access to local services? In my area, an example of that is Erskine, where large areas are connected by pathways, pathways that are not always cleared and many of the roads are unsuitable for gritters. In some cases, that leaves people housebound and isolated for several days. Mary Fee says that she makes no apology for returning to the point about resources for local government. She will not be surprised to say that I make no apology for saying that if you want to have more money for local government, you cannot also have more money for health, which has been demanded, more money for transport, more money for education. At some point, you have to say where that money is going to come from. Do you not acknowledge the extent to which the financial circumstances in the UK have changed? Do you not acknowledge the fact that the budget has been cut for the Scottish Government? Do you not have any responsibility for saying where those cuts should fall? I am more than happy to listen to the cases for a particular additional spending, but you have to identify where that is coming from. Unless it comes with that, then I have to consider that it is not serious. I have laid out the areas in which we have provided extra resources to local government. I have also laid out the areas in which, if there are exceptional circumstances, as we would always do, in relation to flooding, the point made by Alex Johnson in relation to exceptional damage to roads, we will look at that. Local authorities have got the responsibility. They are the roads authorities. When I was a council leader, I was responsible for the local roads in my area, not one of which, incidentally, was a trunk road or a motorway. We are responsible for all our roads. Of course, it is difficult that there are pressures. I acknowledge that. If there are exceptional pressures, we will do what we can to help local authorities. However, I believe that we have made a fair settlement for local authorities, and if necessary, we are prepared to do more. In the event of a particularly bad winter, can the minister inform me of his confidence that, after a thawing of any ice that he has, that the infrastructure will be able to deal with localised flooding? I have the distinct impression that Stuart McMillan has a particular location in mind when he asked that question. I know that that has been addressed by my colleague Paul Whalehouse, along with him. Of course, no man can hold the back of the tide, but there is no question that we have to do more in relation to flood prevention. In my own view, and I am not the expert in this area, Paul Whalehouse would know better than me, it is that very often soft flood defences prove to be much more sustainable and effective than some of the hard flood defences that we have had over time. I know that a great deal of work has been done by WWF and others to make sure that that happens. The situation that Stuart McMillan might be referring to is rather an urban situation. We try to make sure that at least the roads that we are responsible for are protected from flooding. Of course, no one can anticipate what exceptional weather we may get. We design that into the construction of our roads and we continue to make sure that the roads that have been there for some time are better protected against flooding incidents. That ends the statement from the minister on winter resilience. We now move to the next item of business, which is a standards procedure and public points committee to be