Roles and responsibilities

Scottish Government

The Scottish Government is responsible for:

National Policy and Guidance on Flood Prevention and Flood Warning.
Provision of resources to enable authorities to address flood prevention and mitigation.
The Town and Country Planning System, national planning policy and advice on flooding.
Planning applications where flooding is an issue which come before the Scottish Ministers.

SEPA's duties under The Environment Act 1995 include:

Discretionary powers for the provision of Flood Warning for Scotland.
Operation of formal flood warning schemes in partnership with the Local Authorities and the Police.
Operation of Floodline including provision of 24 hour Floodwatch cover for all of Scotland by monitoring of data from river levels, rainfall, tide predictions and weather forecasts.
Advice to Local Authorities on flood risk for planning purposes.
Advice to Local Authorities on flood prevention.
Provision of information in response to public queries on flood risk areas and properties.

Responsibilities under SPP7:

Establishment of Flood Liaison Appraisal Groups to provide practical guidance and information on flood risk and its implications for development to the Local Authority.

Responsibilities under Flood Prevention and Land Drainage (Scotland) Act 1997

Assessment of watercourses in non agricultural areas for conditions likely to pose a flood risk.
Maintenance of watercourses.
Production of biennial reports.

Other responsibilities in respect of flood risk management:

Responsible for planning control.
Provision and maintenance of flood prevention and defence schemes under the 1961 and 1997 Acts.
Work with the Police, Fire and Rescue services in response to severe flooding.
Ensure road gullies are operational.
Deal with road closures (except trunk roads).
Coordination of reception centres for people evacuated from their homes and arrange temporary accommodation if appropriate.
Coordination of the aftermath of floods.

Responsibilities under the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002 & Sewerage (Scotland) Act 1968 include:

Management of the discharge of surface water that enters their drainage systems.
Working in partnership with the local authority and emergency services to alleviate any flooding of foul sewers and the impact of this flooding.
Maintaining water supply and drainage infrastructure.
Repairing flood damaged mains and deal with any flooding caused by bursts.
Managing the storage and release of flood water supply reservoirs.
Liaison with SEPA, local authorities and the emergency services during a flood event.

To help and advise the Scottish Government on flood risk management issues at a strategic level.
To assist with the development of the Flooding Bill.
To offer advice on the transposition of the EC Directive on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks.