WIREDGOV

Scotland’s leading role on international resilience.

Scotland is influencing how some of the largest regions in Europe deal with major incidents, including natural disasters and terror attacks.

Infrastructure Secretary Keith Brown will sign an agreement in Milan this week to share how the Scottish Government has led the development of a robust and effective resilience operation.

Mr Brown will join the President of Italy’s Regione Lombardia, Roberto Maroni, and the Mayor of Velsen in the Netherlands, Franc Weerwind, to sign a formal partnership statement of intent, committing the Scottish Government to helping establish an international network across 17 countries that will work together to improve resilience across Europe.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Mr Brown said:

“In Scotland, we take Critical Infrastructure Resilience (CIR) very seriously – we have seen over many years how our infrastructure can be impacted by a whole range of emergencies and disruptions, not least through severe weather.

“We live in an ever more integrated world and when there is a major incident or systems fail, there can be a cascade effect that impacts on many regions and countries. So it is important that we work together to better understand the vulnerabilities and to put in place effective counter measures to mitigate the risk of failure and disruption.

“This memorandum commits the Scottish Government to sharing what we’ve learned about resilience in recent years, but also to learn from the 16 other countries involved and continue to make Scotland more resilient, safer and stronger.”

Mr Brown will lead a delegation of 15 Scottish Government resilience partners attending the 5th International Workshop on Regional Critical Infrastructure Resilience.

The Workshop will be hosted by the Lombardy Regional Government at their headquarters in Milan and will bring together governments, emergency services, utilities suppliers, environmental agencies and academics.

The event marks the conclusion of a two-year project looking at how regions of EU Member States and small countries can work together to prevent, prepare and protect people against security related risks, including terrorist attacks.