The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is pleased to announce the publication of Scotland’s flood risk management plans (previously called the flood risk management strategies). For the purposes of flood risk management, Scotland has been separated into 14 Local Plan Districts. This is to ensure flood risk management is delivered considering all catchment and coastal processes.

The plans, developed in collaboration with Scottish Water, local authorities, and the National Park Authorities, ensure that authorities responsible for flood risk management work closely together. The plans help make the most effective use of shared resources by targeting areas with the greatest need for intervention and they establish priority actions for flood risk management in Scotland. The next stage of delivery is for lead local authorities to produce their local flood risk management plans based on the information provided in the SEPA flood risk management in 2022.

The publication of the plans by SEPA is in accordance with section 32 of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 and the plans have been approved by Scottish Miniters.

As part of the preparation of the flood risk management plans, SEPA has carried out a strategic environmental assessment. The assessment identifies the significant environmental effects of the plans and is a requirement of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005. Our assessment was published in an Environment Report, and we consulted the public on our findings. We have published a post adoption statement, which describes how we have taken account of the environmental assessment and the consultation responses, and how we will monitor any significant environmental effects.

The flood risk management plans, the environmental report and post adoption statement are available from the SEPA website, www.sepa.org.uk/frmplans. To inspect (free of charge) or obtain copies of the documents, or for other enquiries, please contact 03000 99 66 99 or email FRMPlanning@sepa.org.uk. Further information on flood risk management planning in Scotland is available from the SEPA website, www.sepa.org.uk/flooding.