 Mae'r ddau i'r ddau hwyc oeddi'r ddau hwyc. Yr ddau i ei ffordig yn fwyaf o ddau ei ddau i'r ddau ddau, a ddau i ffordig yn ddau i'r ddau i'r ddau a ddau i gael gwiaith oedd yn ni'r cyflwyno i'r ddau yn rathau? Ond yr unrhyw ffordig yn gwneud mwy gynnwys maen nhw, maen nhon gyda'r ffordd aethau mewn amser i gyflodau yn gallu gyflodau yn periogiadau ar gyfer mwygau ac i perpetuol. Mae eich ddigon ni'n ddarparu, maen nhon i wych gwaith, ac yn y penderfynol, ond mae mae hefyd yn hawdd weaving. Yn 2015, ac yw 6 weithiwch, mae fylwch yn cyffredig. Dysgol 2015 i gyrdau, yn 2016, mae hi'n оes i gael mwneud rhai rhai i gael, yn gyfrifio ar gyfer y ddewis, yn gyfreistiau'n gyfrifio ar 5, over 45 years, and the D in Ballot are over 87 years. SIPA recorded over 50 new record river levels across Scotland, and in many cases, those were exceeded by substantial margins. The scale of the events was exceptional, but so, I believe, was the response to protect our communities. The collective efforts of our responders working very closely together were first class. The timing of Storm Frank could not have been worse with communities and responders planning for the new year, a period of festivity and hope. For communities like Ballot are, which I visited on Hulmanay and Newton Stewart visited by the First Minister and the Environment Minister, it was far from festive and hopeful. While seeing a terrible start to the year, they continued to demonstrate a strong community spirit. The Scottish Government resilience room was actively engaged in the situation throughout, with frequent ministerial resilience meetings to ensure that all the Scottish Government and its agencies could do was being done to support. We heard first hand reports from the national police and fire services demonstrating the benefits of the new structures, including getting special support such as the water rescue craft quickly from one part of the country to another, and providing relief to local teams who had been at the heart of the initial responses. The first class response was greatly aided by the planning and preparations supported by forecasts from the Met Office and SIPA. These allowed preparations to be undertaken, and resources stood up in advance of their immediate requirement. Their forward look also allowed good planning to respond to needs, ensuring that individuals and teams were not strained too heavily in the process. Local authorities were at the heart of the efforts to respond, putting in place immediate defences and where required setting up rest centres. It was a concerted effort involving a whole range of functions, flooding social care as well as emergency response. Their efforts were based on a substantial foundation of preparation, response and recovery, and I want to recognise their achievements in what were very challenging circumstances. Whilst the efforts of local authority staff and emergency responders were critical and deserve recognition, I should also highlight the role played by third sector organisations and communities. None of us will fail to be impressed by the spirit that was endured in many of those communities and the particular example of firefighters who put to one side their own concerns about their own properties as to flood risk to support their local communities. Communities have joined together to deal with both the response and now the recovery, and I pay tribute to all involved in this process. We will review recent events with the aim of learning lessons to help in future emergency responses. This is regular practice following a score activation, with officials and responders reviewing the circumstances of the event to identify lessons learned, which are acted upon to provide a continuous improvement regime. Ultimately, the learning identified is captured and utilised to review and improve the delivery of response and recovery actions by statutory organisations, voluntary agencies and central government, and provide the best possible service to our communities, as was seen by the tremendous joint efforts to tackle issues arising from the winter storms. The Government has also been quick to respond to the move from response to recovery. On each occasion we have been quick to activate the bellwins scheme, it was triggered on 7 December 2015 as a result of storm Desmond and on 30 December 2015 as a result of storm Frank and remains active in the aftermath of the latest severe flooding. The Scottish Flood Forum, financially supported by the Scottish Government, has been swift to offer local support and advice. On 16 December, I announced as part of the budget statement the allocation of £4 million Barnett consequentials to support those affected by storm Desmond. Last Thursday evening and Friday morning, we saw some very significant impacts in the north-east of Scotland. As those latest communities dealt with the immediate clear-up on Saturday, the First Minister announced a further round of support totaling £12 million. The key elements of the package are as follows. First, they provide funding to local authorities to allow them to make payments of £1,500 for households, businesses, charities and community groups affected by flooding. That would be paid from allocations made to local authorities by the Scottish Government. If a local authority did not receive an allocation, it can seek recompense from the Scottish Government to make such a payment, ensuring that any individual in any part of Scotland can receive support if they have been affected by flooding. Secondly, a flat rate grant payment of £3,000 to businesses in any part of Scotland, where there is evidence that their ability to trade has been severely impacted by flooding at the beginning of January. The grant will be a one-off payment to offset costs that cannot be covered by existing insurance, for example, clean-up costs, materials and exceptional costs to help the business to restore trade, such as marketing and promotion. That will be funded by the Scottish Government in addition to the local authority allocations. Thirdly, the Scottish Government will make available £5 million to assist in reinstating infrastructure that has been lost due to recent flooding. A specific allocation will be made to Aberdeenshire Council to support the reinstatement of the A93 between Ballotir and Breymar. The exact sum will be dependent on discussions with the local authority. Further bids from local authorities are now invited. Finally, the Scottish Government will open an agricultural floodbank restoration grant scheme, which will be available to the farming community to seek financial support to restore damaged floodbanks. The total available will be up to £1 million. Further discussions will take place tomorrow between the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment, SEPA and the National Farmers Union of Scotland to discuss how we are effectively involved in supporting the farming community in managing those conditions. The Government has made those announcements as swiftly as possible after the conclusion of the weather events. That ensured that all partners maintained a clear focus on resolving the emergency situations and enabled us to gather a picture of the scale of the events to give clarity about the financial support that could be provided. Today, the infrastructure secretary is writing to the United Kingdom Government, asking them to make an application, as the member states, to the EU solidarity fund. The solidarity fund was established after the severe flooding in central Europe in 2002. Payments can be made to help emergency operations to deal with non-insurable damage such as salvage operations, repair of infrastructure and cleaning. Applications can only be made by member states. The UK received £162 million after the 2007 floods, but so far has declined to make an application in relation to recent flooding. We are asking that they now do so, as an application may well provide additional and welcome funding to local authorities to deal with the impact of the past few weeks. December 2015 was the wettest on record. Climate change brings the likelihood of even more frequent severe weather events. It is important that we are prepared, and to that purpose in 2009, this Parliament approved the Flood Risk Management Act. Yesterday, the Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform launched our first ever flood risk management plan and 14 local strategies. Those set out investment plans of over £235 million in 42 flood protection schemes, protecting over 10,000 properties. That national plan allows us to target investment and coordinate actions that will reduce flood risk. The strategies contain measures such as natural flood risk management, where it is appropriate, as well as initiatives such as flood warning and community engagement. It is a culmination of a number of years of work to identify current flood risk. It sets a clear agenda for action over coming months. The strategies have been developed collaboratively, they are not static plans, they will continue to be informed by the work undertaken by SIPA and other bodies, overseen by the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Climate Change, to ensure that our approach adequately addresses the latest climate change projections. SIPA provided excellent technical support and advice in informing those plans and worked closely with local plan partnership teams. The public were also engaged before the strategies were finalised. The strategies set the framework for the first six-year planning cycle. In June, the local authority-led partnerships will set out the detailed plan of action, providing additional local detail on delivery between 2016 and 2021. This massive programme demonstrates the seriousness of which this Government takes flood risk and the steps that we are taking to reduce that risk across Scotland. As a Government, we are committed to investing in flood risk management and investment in the future. The recent budget identified the need to maintain future investment in flood protection schemes and protected support for flood warning and forecasting. Recent events have shown the importance of that. In conclusion, I want to repeat the Government's appreciation for those involved in the front-line response to protecting communities across Scotland from recent severe weather events. We recognise that flood risk management is a long-term priority, we are committed to reducing the risk, we have put in place a framework to deliver improvements and we are working to ensure that investment continues to be made available to support delivery across the country. The Deputy First Minister will now take questions on issues raised in his statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions, after which we will move on to the next item of business. It would be helpful if members who wish to ask a question of the DFM would press the request to speak, but now I will see about it. I thank the Deputy First Minister for her advance copy of his statement. I also wish to echo the Minister's comments about the huge effort that there has been to help people through the floods and the immediate aftermath. I particularly welcome the commitment to a review of the emergency response, but we would specifically ask that the issue of flooding equipment in communities at risk being available to the fire and rescue service is addressed across the whole country. I also support the reference in the Deputy First Minister's statement to the suggestion that there is a UK bid to the EU solidarity fund. I think that that makes a huge amount of sense given the severity of floods that communities have experienced across the country. I repeat my view that I believe that we need a proper formal review going forward. The Deputy First Minister finished by reassuring us that the money needed was there for flood defences and that there were local strategies in place, but surely what the last events of the last fortnight tell us is that the extreme and more unpredictable weather conditions that we are now experiencing will cause devastation to local communities and businesses. Although SIPA estimates the annual cost of flooding to be in the region of £250 million, the cost of the last fortnight is estimated at being over £700 million. I would like more detail about the £235 million that the Deputy First Minister referred to and exactly what it will buy. My understanding of the scheme that he has referred to is that it has not all been tendered, so we do not know the final outcome bills for those schemes and whether they will all be affordable. We also need to know the timescales. It is suggested in today's statement that we are not going to have that information until after June this year. Can the Deputy First Minister clarify that? Importantly, it is clear having looked at the schemes and SIPA's flood prevention strategies that even if all the schemes were being suggested were built, there will still be whole communities, many communities that will not be affected by those flood defences and that there will be tens of thousands of households that will not be protected. Last week, the First Minister told me that she did not want to run into you. I am not asking for that. I am not asking for that. Apologies, Presiding Officer. Surely we need to look at future flood mitigation and resilience for our communities and infrastructure and that that is done urgently. I hear what Sarah Boyack says on those issues. I welcome what she said in relation to the EU funding point and also on the flood equipment issues that have been looked at in the light of the experience that we have had. Those are part of the operational reviews that will be undertaken. In relation to the remainder of her question, I am at a bit of a loss to understand what she wants the Government to do. We set out on an orderly process that was activated by an act of Parliament passed in 2009, which required us to produce flood risk management strategies. We have now done that, they have been published, they were launched by the environment minister just on Monday and they cover the length and breadth of the country. In some cases we will require us to undertake some investment in flood protection schemes of the type that we are just completing in Selkirk where the minister was on Monday or which were completed some years ago in the city of Perth that I represent and which have proved to be money extremely well spent. In other circumstances they will be about working with nature to utilise the advantages of nature to be a component part in our flood risk management strategy. That work has been done and the Government is now focused entirely on implementing those strategies to provide the maximum amount of protection that we possibly can do to people in those circumstances. I say that that is right. There will be instances of acute weather intensity that will affect different parts of the country. When I was in Balotar on Hugmanay, not one single person said to me that a flood defence scheme could have protected Balotar because the scale of the event was of such a magnitude that no design scheme would have managed to do that. What there is a requirement to do is to look at catchment areas exactly as the flood risk management strategies do to identify what cumulative actions can be taken to provide the maximum amount of protection and that is what the Government is focused on implementing and taking forward. Those strategies have been informed by the best available research and we will continue to update that research, as I indicated in my statement that we will do. Finally, on the issue of funding, the Government has made available £42 million as part of the local government finance settlement to support flood prevention schemes in Scotland. That money has been used across a range of different areas. It has been used in the city of Elgin to provide schemes in forests, in Selkirk and in Brechen. Indeed, in both Selkirk and Brechen, where the schemes are just half built, they have provided essential protection to the communities involved. That commitment, the commitment of the Government to maintain that funding over the duration of the period to 2020, has been assured by the commitment that I have given to local government that it will command 26 per cent of the capital budget available to the Government over the period to 2020, which is an extension of the time, the commitment that I previously given to local government. The resources are there for us to work with local government to introduce the flood risk management strategies that have been carefully prepared in advance of their requirement. Alex Ferguson, up to a minute. I am grateful to the Deputy First Minister for the copy of his statement. I would entirely endorse the sentiments that he expressed on the professional and voluntary services that rose so wholeheartedly to the occasion in the wake of the recent devastating floods along with the communities involved. The First Minister's announcement on Saturday was very welcome, although I believe that it was a statement that should surely have been made to Parliament before it was made to the media. There are, however, many questions that arise from it and from this statement today. Can the Deputy First Minister confirm that the £4 million of consequential funding that he announced on 16 December will not be made available to local councils till the end of March, and if that is the case, will he fast-track it? Will the Government work with SEPA to ensure that communities such as Carsthern in my constituency that has now been flooded three years in a row and yet is not recognised by SEPA as an area of potential vulnerability? Will he ensure that communities like that are fully taken to account within the flood risk management plan that was announced yesterday because currently they are not? Finally, as we begin to look at how better to deal with future flooding, will the Government undertake to look at prophylactic measures where appropriate to slow down the flow of water from our hills and forests before they get into the river system rather than something that is being increasingly successful in all parts of the UK, which has proved to be much more economic and efficient than the purely reactive building of barriers in towns and cities once the water is actually in those systems? First of all, I have seen a bit of traffic over the course of the last two days that the money that I announced in December will not be available until March. I suspect that that has come from the letter that was issued on 17 December to local authorities, which indicated that the money would be paid through the local government settlement as a redetermination and paid out in the last two weeks of March 2016. If this is where the source of this particular piece of poorly analysed information, it does not say very much about the knowledge of local government finance determinations because, on a constant basis, ministers make announcements in this Parliament, and the statutory allocation of the money, the actual parliamentary approval, might not come until a redetermination order at the end of March, but it does not stop local authorities spending the money. There is absolutely no issue about local authorities having to wait until the end of March for their money. I have announced in Parliament that the money is coming. If that is not good enough for a local authority, then the whole system of local government finance in every other respect, because I have a list of different other schemes here, whether it is the council tax reduction scheme or the teachers' induction scheme or the free school meals or the looked after children policy or the discretionary housing payment system, all of which were paid out to local authorities by the same means, and it did not stop local authorities paying out the money. I do not know what people are thinking about on that particular point. On Mr Ferguson's second point, I have a lot of sympathy with his point about the efforts to try to slow down water as it comes down straths. I think that there is a substantial conversation that has to be had, and we are already embarked on that conversation with the agricultural community and with land use interests, about the various components that can play a part to try to retain as much water as possible in the hills before it ends up in coastal communities and in the river routes through our country. Indeed, if the temperature had been a bit lower, most of the rain that fell in my constituency would still be in the Grampian hills, in the Grampian mountains, and we would be having a fabulous skiing season into the bargain, but it was not thus. There is a substantive discussion that thinking is implicit in the flood risk management strategies, and it will continue to play a part in the discussions that we have with the agriculture and rural interests about how we can best utilise the natural resources of Scotland to provide flooding protection. As members would expect, I have a large number of questions, so I ask that you keep your question as short as possible. In that way, I will allow everybody who has an interest to get in. Joe McAlpine, followed by Elaine Murray. The people of Dumfries and Galloway in my region welcome the FFM's announcement of £1 million for the region in addition to the £700,000 allocated in December. However, the Labour Council in Dumfries and Galloway refused to let people know about the £1,500 grants available to them in December until yesterday, and they still claim that they have no money to distribute until March, despite the Deputy First Minister's explanation today and the fact that they have considerable reserves and unspent revenue from this year. The council also claimed that the December money is restricted to victims of storm desmond, but I can reveal today that victims of storm desmond in Dumfries failed or told that there were no grants available to them last week. Does the Deputy First Minister agree with me that— Please sit down, Deputy First Minister. In my answer to Mr Ferguson, I went through length the issues that I have been communicated in this. I have made an allocation of money, and the statutory force of that will be applied later on in the French year. However, the money is available to be spent, and there should be no impediment to be allocated to individuals who require that support. I was interested that the cabinet secretary repeated the assertion that councils should pay out now. I suggest that instead of asking cashstrap councils to make payments on the basis of an IOU from the Scottish Government, the Scottish Government should make payments as soon as possible to councils in order to assist them in assisting hard-pressed households and local businesses. I am at a loss here. Dr Murray is a former Minister of the Scottish Government who knows how local authority finance works. Every week, we pay money to local authorities, every single week in life. A cash payment is made by the Government to local authorities. If Dr Murray is trying to say to me that I'm freezing Galloway Council is so hard-pressed, he can't find £1,500 this week to pay out to somebody because they have no other money available, local authorities are sitting on £1.8 billion of cash reserves that can be used to support cash management, and they know and they know fine well that it's not an IOU. They know fine well that I have given a commitment in a redetermination that that money will be paid. Now, Dr Murray is a Galloway Council. She should just pay up to the people that we've allocated to the money and stop finding excuses. Mark McDonald called by Travis Scott. Thankfully, many homes in my constituency were spared the impact of the dawn flooding. However, Dice Jr's football club in my constituency has seen their home pitch severely flooded, perimeter fence damaged and facilities in their clubhouse suffering significant damage as well. While the announcement around cash available to community groups is welcome, I wonder if the Deputy First Minister would advise whether the local football club would fall into such a category. We might reflect on what future support might be available for the club given the significant damage that is being caused to their ground to enable them to continue to fulfil fixtures at the earliest possible stage. We've said that the £1,500 payment can be made to an individual, to a business, to a charity, to a community group. I hope that that definition is broad enough to take in organisations of the type that Mr McDonald has raised. Of course, it will be for individual judgments to be applied at local level as to the eligibility that will be set out. However, we believe that that is a broad enough guidance to give to individual authorities to enable them to determine what sort of ventures can be supported. As for longer-term support, organisations have access to a whole range of different provisions that can assist them in ensuring that their grounds can be rehabilitated. However, what the Government is trying to do is to provide early cash support that can enable organisations and individuals to get back on the feet after what has been a very serious set of circumstances. I thank the Deputy First Minister for his statement. Would he agree to review the Bellwin plan, given the concerns that have been expressed by councils across Scotland, not least in his own area? Secondly, when he mentioned the welcome letter to the UK Government with respect to the UK Solidarity Fund, he also said that there had been some previous discussions. Could he tell Parliament what they might have been and what his reading of why the UK Government seems to be so reluctant to apply to that particular fund, given the good that it would do to Scotland? I will certainly look at the Bellwin scheme. I will be very surprised if there is not a successful Bellwin scheme claim out of the events of the past few weeks, because I should clarify to Parliament that I will be judging claims not on a storm Desmond basis, but separately on a storm Frank basis. I shall be looking at that entire period, which I think is only reasonable in the circumstances to consider the flooding damage that has been done. On the issue of the EU Solidarity Fund, as I indicated in my statement, the United Kingdom Government has been a beneficiary of this in the past, in 2007, quite understandably. It represents the type of fund for which we contribute on an on-going basis as part of the financial contributions that member states make to the European Union. It is important that, when we require that support, we make propositions to approach that. There would obviously be a benefit also to communities in England, because there was severe damage in the north of England and the bargain. I have no insight knowledge as to what is in the thinking of the United Kingdom Government, but I encourage them to embark on an application to try to receive some of that support, which would be a benefit to us and to local authorities. Can I ask the Deputy First Minister to confirm that I have already had discussions with him about flooding that has taken place in the city of Stirling, Aberfoil, Calender and wider Stirling area in the past couple of weeks? Does the Deputy First Minister agree that it is now urgent that people who are affected and who qualify for a grant as householders or business find the money in their accounts as soon as possible? Do that end, what positive discussions have taken place with local authorities to ensure that they put in place arrangements necessary to ensure that as many payments of grants as possible can be achieved? We are obviously communicating with local authorities about the arrangements. As I have explained already to the Parliament, there are no impediments to that money being available and for it to be financed by local authorities. The particular circumstances in Stirling, the properties and businesses that have been affected in Stirling are across quite a range of different geographies within the communities involved. For that reason, I took the decision because there will be isolated properties in local authorities that have not been influenced by the allocations that I have made to make a facility available to local authorities who have not got an allocation to make payments and for them to seek recompense on the Scottish Government so that no individual in any part of Scotland who has been flooded in this recent event in any way loses out from the process. Will the Deputy First Minister agree to consider further R&D funding for the development of integrated catchment management, recognising as he does the link between upland management and downstream flooding to better protect our towns and villages? Will he and colleagues in this context consider increasing SRDP funding to support new initiatives, for instance, for the new co-operation fund for joint strategy implementation? The Claudia Beamish will be familiar with the fact that there is provision within the agriculture support scheme to encourage and motivate a greater use of—well, a greater attention towards this element of our thinking in the approach to agricultural management. As I said in my statement, the rural affairs secretary will meet the National Farmers Union who has expressed their enthusiasm to be participants in what is an important discussion. If I think about the area that I represent, if agricultural land had not retained the volume of water that it retained, there would have been much more significant implications for urban communities and I am profoundly grateful to the farming community for the way in which that was handled. In relation to the research question, Mr Lockhead will, of course, have a regular dialogue with the research institutes who are active on this question, and I am sure that the points that Claudia Beamish raises can be reflected in that thinking into the bargain. Can I first associate myself with the comments of the Deputy First Minister with regard to the work of the councils, emergency services and the army of volunteers? Deputy First Minister visited Ballotar and was very much aware of the situation in Ballotar, and I welcome the announcement of the monies available for the repair of the road between Ballotar and Brimar. My constituency between the D and the Dawn has been affected quite significantly. Can the Deputy First Minister put on record a mechanism for people to make applications for compensation, and will those be on the Scottish Government website? The most important thing is that there is a ready means for individuals to make themselves known to local authorities to secure that financial support. We are encouraging local authorities to make that information available to them. Clearly, the priority is to make sure that we can provide that practical assistance to individuals and to provide it in a fashion that meets the needs of individuals who have been affected by what is a very serious set of circumstances. To that, can the Deputy First Minister confirm that the allocation of funding to local authorities will fully fund the £1,500 payment that is intended for households in the relevant council areas and confirm that there is no expectation or requirement that those payments should be means tested in any way? On the first point, I would be staggered if the money that I have allocated does not meet all of the requirements of the £1,500 payment in all local authority areas. However, if local authorities can provide evidence to me that that is not the case, I will consider that evidence. In relation to the question of means testing, I do not intend to apply any means testing to the process. Hoik's flood prevention plan has been prioritised as number 16 out of 42 plans in the pipeline for the next five years. SEPA has identified 683 residential properties and 283 businesses at risk of flooding in Hoik. However, looking at the plan, 15 plans above Hoik on that list, all but two affect a smaller number of properties. Given the scale of the damage caused last month in Hoik, will the Scottish Government give consideration to give greater priority to the hoik flood scheme? As Mr Lamont will appreciate, as individual schemes take their course, there are a whole variety of different tests that have to be passed, not least of which is the whole planning process and design process. I would say to him not to attach too much rigidity to the order in which schemes emerge. There is a priority to ensure that the funding support is in place to be used to ensure that schemes are taken forward as timely as possible. I know from the evidence that it has been marshaled in relation to the scheme in Hoik that the significance of the benefits of all that will be considered as part of the decision-making process. In Caithness communities such as Hall Curtain stacks ago near Wick, we are not considered to be flooding hotspots but flooded due mainly to excessive surface water. One of the cabinet secretary can say that, in the medium term, while the rolling flood management plans reassess areas previously considered low risk for investment, in the short term will the Scottish Government encourage local authorities to review drainage and culvert maintenance to cope with much heavier surface water flooding? On the last point, there is a lot of substance in what Mr Gibson says. One of the biggest issues that has been faced by the nature of the last element of storm damage has been the enormous volumes of surface water because of a prolonged period of heavy rain. That puts enormous pressure on the drainage systems that we have in place and they may not all be designed to cope with that volume and capacity. It is important that, around the country, first of all that the drainage systems are well maintained because good maintenance regimes can help in that process. We also consider areas where improvements to the drainage system may make a significant amount of difference. It is an issue for us to take forward at local authority level because the issue of surface water is a particular impediment in the effective flow of water and in the alleviation of some of the difficulties that can be experienced. That ends the statement by the Deputy First Minister. My apologies to the two members that I was unable to call. The next item of business is a debate on motion number 15282.