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Report from Convoy Debate in Holyrood – 2 May 2018

Report from Members Debate in Holyrood – 2 May 2018.

Civil Contingency in Nuclear Weapon Transport.

Yesterday for over an hour the Scottish Parliament discussed nuclear weapons convoys in a debate raised by Mark Ruskell MSP from the Scottish Greens. It was a member’s debate which comes after decision time so most members leave then but 22 stayed to listen and contribute.

Mark Ruskell introduced the motion and thanked David Mackenzie and Jane Tallents for the Unready Scotland report and paid tribute to the work of the Nukewatch network. He explained why the hazards of nuclear weapons transport are so unique and how the results of a survey of Scottish Local Authorities by him which showed that none of them had conducted risk assessments or informed the public. He said that the current devolution settlement laid responsibility for community safety with the Scottish Government under the Civil Contingencies Act 2014 and called for them to hold a review of civil authorities plans for a convoy accident.

Bill Kidd (SNP) said no one should be ignorant of what these convoys carry and called for the minister to consider setting up a group to conduct a review.

Edward Mountain, Conservative, set out a number of facts as he saw them. Basically be believes that the warheads are safe to transport, security is high, contingency plans are in place and all civil authorities are consulted before a convoy begins its journey.

Claudia Beamish from Labour said she was concerned about the failure of local authorities to ensure compliance with the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and she called on the Minister to highlight how civilian partnerships were interlinked and she called for a review.

Clare Haughey (SNP), Gordon MacDonald (SNP), Bruce Crawford (SNP) and Tom Arthur (SNP) all spoke about concerns about convoys through or near to their constituencies, made lots of good points and called for action from the Minister.

Maurice Cory (Con) said that the public has nothing to fear and in an incident the convoy commander would take charge. He did however commend to the Minister that she look at the exercises around Faslane as an example of informing the public and progress that elsewhere.

Ross Greer (Green) said that a warhead in transit equates to the most powerful and dangerous dirty bomb imaginable and that all public bodies that are Category One Responders should be prepared. He hoped that the debate would prompt councils to live up to their responsibilities.

At the end Annabelle Ewing, Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, replied for the government.

She said that the three resilience partnerships regularly undertake a risk and preparedness assessment process which enables them to identify and assess the main risks that are relevant to their regions and determine how prepared they are to deal with the consequences of those risks. In response to an intervention from Mark Ruskell she said that those specifically include assessment and planning regarding nuclear convoys.

However she said she would write to HM Inspectorate of the Constabulary and HM Fire Service Inspectorate in Scotland to request a joint review of the resilience work of Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to look at “how they work with local authorities and the other responders in Scotland’s regional resilience partnerships to ensure that response arrangements are indeed up to date and current, because we all want to have that assurance.”

The full transcript is available at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=11499

Unready Scotland Report available here

Nukewatch comment. We are very pleased that the Scottish Parliament spent an hour discussing our concerns about the risks of nuclear weapons convoys on our roads and the lack of public information about any emergency plans to deal with a serious incident. It is encouraging to see how many MSPs are well informed and truly represent their constituents by calling for a review of the arrangements that would be in place should the worst happen. The Ministers request that Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service conduct a review is progress and may ultimately lead to greater awareness of nuclear weapons transport and the risks involved.

There are still many questions and much work to do.

Press articles:

Scotsman

Common Space

STOP PRESS: Debate in Scottish Parliament about Nuclear Weapons Convoys. 2nd May

The motion “Civil Contingency in Nuclear Weapon Transport” lodged by Mark Ruskell MSP will be debated in Holyrood next Wednesday, May 2nd at 5pm. See full text below.

Although as a Members Debate it won’t result in a vote Mark will speak about the Nukewatch report UNREADY SCOTLAND and our request to the Scottish Government to conduct an open review of civil authorities readiness to respond to a serious accident with a nuclear weapon in transit.

The report arose from a survey that Mark Ruskell’s office conducted of local authorities that convoys pass through. The results showed the woeful lack of emergency planning for an accident with such a unique cargo – high explosives combined with radioactive material including plutonium. They seemed content to leave public safety in the hands of the MOD although it’s clear that the MOD would expect first responders including councils to take care of the public including evacuations and disseminating advice to take shelter.

We have already sent the report to all MSPs on convoy routes but to have this information formally put on record in the Holyrood chamber is important. The Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, Paul Wheelhouse MSP will respond at the end of the debate.

If you live in Scotland please can you ask your MSPs to sign the motion and attend the debate. You can see if the convoys travel through your area by looking at the Council areas mentioned in the motion. Support from any MSP’s is helpful but it would be especially valuable if those whose constituents are put at risk by the transport of nuclear weapons could go to the debate and contribute. Hearing from you would encourage that.

It would be great to see a good attendance in the public gallery. You can book a ticket online

Or let us know you want to attend and we can meet you in the main lobby at 4.30pm with tickets.

Mark Ruskell is booking a room where we can discuss what was said afterwards and have some refreshments. Please let us know if you want to join us.

Find out more about UNREADY SCOTLAND and read the full report here.

Jane Tallents and David Mackenzie for Nukewatch.

Motion S5M-11539: Mark Ruskell, Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party, Date Lodged: 09/04/2018

Civil Contingency in Nuclear Weapon Transport

That the Parliament understands that the Ministry of Defence regularly transports nuclear weapons on public roads in convoys that pass through or close to communities in the Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Midlothian, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, Stirling, South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian local authority areas; believes that there is an inherent risk in transporting high explosives and radioactive material together on public roads; understands that information on what to do in an emergency involving a nuclear reactor is regularly circulated to residents close to the Coulport and Faslane bases but that no equivalent information relating to an incident involving nuclear weapons is available to communities along the regular convoy route; believes that although defence is a reserved matter, it would be for the civil authorities such as police, fire and rescue and local authorities to attempt to respond to any emergency as so-called category 1 responders, and notes the view that these civil authorities must have sufficient assessments and plans in place to respond.

Check here so see if your MSPs have signed it.

Support from Scottish CND in Requesting Scottish Government Review

Nukewatch welcomes this open letter to John Swinney supporting our request for a review into the civil authorities preparedness to cope with a serious nuclear convoy accident in the report UNREADY SCOTLAND. The replies we have received so far from Paul Wheelhouse Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy can be seen here.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

An open letter to John Swinney, Deputy First Minister with responsibility for Resilience

Dear Mr Swinney

I am writing on behalf of Scottish CND to share our concern about the continuing and regular transport of the UK’s nuclear weapons on Scottish roads. Our objection to this traffic is twofold. The movement by road of nuclear warheads is a key part of the UK’s horrifying and illegal Trident nuclear weapon system. The transport also presents immediate and unacceptable risks to the communities through which the nuclear weapon convoys pass, risks which the UK Ministry of Defence itself acknowledges and attempts to justify as acceptable in order to maintain the Trident system. Our concern has been heightened by the publication of the Nukewatch report “Unready Scotland” and the disappointing response of the Scottish government to its findings (REPORT link). The report has highlighted a general unreadiness on the part of Scottish local authorities on convoy routes to respond effectively to a serious incident, in terms of their duties under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004). The report noted in particular a general failure to conduct appropriate risk assessments of the threat posed by the traffic and a complete failure to make and keep their public informed, both of which are statutory duties under the Act. While accepting that defence is reserved to Westminster and that the conduct of the convoys is a UK government responsibility, the report has recommended that the Scottish government conducts a review into the readiness of the relevant civil authorities in Scotland to effectively fulfil their statutory part following any serious incident. To date the Scottish government has not acceded to this request. Scottish CND supports the Nukewatch request for a review as a sensible and appropriate step forward. Meanwhile there are strong indications that the new UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is already having a significant impact in advance of its entry into force. Since the adoption of the Treaty, 30 financial institutions have ceased investing in nuclear weapon producers. At UN level ICAN is reliably advised that the nuclear-armed states, including the United Kingdom, are feeling the challenge that the Treaty poses to their nuclear weapon status. The treaties banning chemical weapons, cluster munitions and landmines have led the way in changing the norm around these inhumane weapons, and there are signs that the nuclear ban treaty is beginning to have the same effect.

We are delighted that a majority of Scottish parliamentarians, including the entire Scottish government, have signed the ICAN Parliamentary Pledge to work for the advancement of the TPNW. Scotland has a unique position as a significant section of a nuclear-armed state which at both popular and parliamentary level rejects that state’s possession of these WMD. This is recognised worldwide. In that context it is vital that all reasonable and constitutionally viable steps be taken to align with the Treaty.

One such step is the modest one recommended by Nukewatch. Scottish CND commends it to you.

Yours sincerely,

Jean Anderson

Scottish CND Secretary

On behalf of the Executive Committee

March 2018 convoy and a thought about incident response.

A nuclear weapons convoy left AWE Burghfield on Thursday March 22. It was later seen on the A1 at junction 49 near Dishforth (15 miles north of Wetherby). The following day it was spotted crossing over to the west on the A66 and then on the M74 just south of Lesmahagow. It then continued around the east of Glasgow on the M73 and past Cumbernauld on the M80 to take a break at DSG Stirling mid-afternoon. It then took the M9, A811 and A82 to RNAD Coulport.

On Monday March 26 this convoy left Coulport to return south. Taking a route through Balloch and Stirling then onto the M9 and M8 to the Edinburgh bypass it then took a break at Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik. After continuing south on the A1 passing Berwick on Tweed it passed through Newcastle and after an overnight stop it then continued down the A1. It crossed country to the A34 travelling around Oxford and getting back to Burghfield around 5pm.

Meanwhile a message from Nukewatchers in Scotland…..

The Kerslake Report on the Manchester Arena bombing last year was published this week with its criticism of poor inter-agency working and communication failures. The last publicised exercise testing multi-agency responses to a nuclear convoy accident was in 2011 and the follow-up report noted poor inter-agency working and poor communication. The Scottish councils through which convoys regularly pass were asked in a 2016 survey whether they had adjusted their policies or procedures in the light of the 2011 report. They all said they had not. In the Manchester case there had at least been a recent exercise based on a terrorist scenario and involving all the relevant agencies but, as Kerslake himself has said, a simulation exercise is all very well but a real life situation provides its own unforeseeable challenges. All of which makes the title of the Nukewatch 2017 report “Unready Scotland” ever more accurate. In Scotland we are not ready to respond effectively to a serious nuclear weapon convoy incident and perhaps we never could be. Meanwhile the Scottish government, which has been well apprised of the serious deficits in readiness, has still not agreed to conduct a modest review of the response capacities of the civil authorities in Scotland. That is not good enough.

Please sign our petition asking the Scottish Government to take action.

First convoy of 2018 takes new route on M8

Nuclear Warhead Convoy report January 2018

The first convoy of 2018 left Burghfield on January 31^st with four warhead carriers and the usual support vehicles. It travelled west along the M4 then north on the A34 passed Oxford, M40 and A46 round Leamington Spa and Coventry and then had a break at Gamecock Barracks near Nuneaton. By mid-afternoon it was back on the road traveling up country for an overnight stop in the north of England. On Thu February 1^st it continued north and appeared later than previously on the Edinburgh bypass in the early evening and turned off to Glencorse Barracks for a break. Unusually it then took the M8 west passing Livingston and Bathgate and then through the centre of Glasgow before crossing the Erskine Bridge to head up the A82 arriving at Coulport after 10pm.

This convoy set off for the return journey on the morning of Monday 5^th February taking the A82 and A811 to Stirling where is stopped at DSG Forthside for a break. It then headed down the M9 and M8 and around the Edinburgh bypass to the A1. After going past Dunbar and Berwick upon Tweed it turned off the A1 at Alnwick to RAF Boulmer for a break before heading south again on the A1 which took it right through Newcastle during the evening rush hour.

After an overnight stop it was again on the road passing Aberford on the A1 mid-morning. It continued right down the A1 past Harrogate and Doncaster before stopping at RAF Wittering for a break and then appears to have continued into heavy traffic around the M25 and M4 getting back to Burghfield by early evening

This convoy again passed through and close to many towns and cities along its route often in heavy traffic.

Nukewatch published a report UNREADY SCOTLAND : the critical gap in our response to the transport of nuclear weapons last year. It is based mainly on a survey of Scottish local authorities on routes taken by the warhead convoys conducted by MSP Mark Ruskell in the autumn of 2016, this report scrutinises the preparedness of the Scottish civil authorities to deal adequately with any incident or accident involving the convoys that transport the weapons. It makes worrying reading.

The report calls on the Scottish Government to conduct a review of the way the councils and others like the emergency services would cope with a serious convoy accident. As they have not yet agreed to that please Sign the Petition and circulate it to others.

If you live in a Scottish Local Authority area on a convoy route write to your council about their response to the survey.
If you live in England a more general letter to your council with some questions can be found here

November 2017 convoy halted in Stirling.

On Wednesday 15^th November a full convoy including four warhead carriers left Burghfield in the morning. It went west on the M4 to junction 12 and then north on the A34 around Oxford. Crossing the M40 it took the A41 to MOD Arncott for a break. It then went back onto the M40 north to junction 15 and onto the A46 and then the M69 to go into Gamecock Barracks for lunch. After that it headed up to the M1 and continued north.

The next day, Thursday 16^th, it was spotted on the M74 just north of Carlisle so had crossed over to the West route at some point. It continued up onto the M73, M80 and then the M9 turning off to take a break at DSG Stirling. As it left there is was briefly halted by three protesters carrying copies of the recently published Nukewatch report UNREADY SCOTLAND. They were arrested for obstructing the police. The convoy continued back onto the M9 and then turned west on the A811 and up the A82 arriving at Coulport in the dark.

On Monday 20^th November the convoy left Coulport although strangely it only had two warhead carriers with all the escort. It took the A811 to Stirling and continued on the M9 to the Edinburgh bypass where it turned off to Glencorse Barracks in Penicuik. A film taken of it leaving there was later posted on Facebook and has currently been shared 1153 times and been viewed by 72,000 people. Returning to the Edinburgh bypass the convoy continued down the A1 passing Newcastle to stop overnight at RAF Leeming. The next day it returned to Burghfield via the A1 crossing to the M40 and the A34. Towards the end of its journey it was caught up in lots of heavy traffic.

Warhead Delivery to Scotland Sept 2017

A nuclear weapons convoy with four warhead carriers left Burghfield early on Monday September 25^th taking the M4 and then the A34 around Oxford. It went onto the M40 and stopped mid-morning at Kineton near Banbury. After taking the A46 around Coventry to the M1 it went into Chetwynd Barracks on the outskirts of Nottingham. The convoy was then seen on the M1 passing junction 62 mid-afternoon.

On the morning of Tuesday September 26^th it was seen coming off the A66 onto the M6. It headed north onto the M74 and took the M80 and M9 to Stirling. From there the convoy headed west via the A811 and up the A82 to turn across the A817 arriving at Coulport at around 6pm.

On the morning of Sunday 1st October the convoy set off south again passing through Stirling to the M9, M80 and M74. It crossed the country to the A1 and was seen again the next day heading south to the M25 and then west on the M4 to return to Burghfield.

This is the first convoy delivering warheads to Scotland that we have been aware of since May this year. Since then Nukewatchers in Scotland have published a report UNREADY SCOTLAND and will be embarking on a series of public meetings. For more information about the report and the meetings see here

Please sign our petition to the Scottish Government asking for a review of civil authority arrangements for dealing with a convoy accident. Although defence is reserved to Westminster the Scottish Government is responsible for making sure local authorities make risk assessments for hazards in their area and communicate these to the public. This would lead to greater awareness of the existence of road transport of nuclear weapons and enable the public to decide if it was a risk they want to take.

Sign it here

Public Meetings scheduled in Scotland

Could Scotland Cope with a Nuclear Weapons Convoy Crash?

EDINBURGH: 28 Sept 6pm, Godfrey Thomson Hall, Thompsons Land, St John St, Edinburgh EH8 8AQ Jointly organised with UN House
HELENSBURGH: 2 Oct 7.30pm, Guide Hall, John St, Helensburgh CND
EDINBURGH: 6 Oct 7pm, Yes Hub, 31 Lasswade Rd, EH16 6TD jointly organised with Edinburgh Yes Hub
GLASGOW: 10 October, 7pm, Rainbow Room, Friends Meeting House, 38 Elmbank Crescent, Glasgow G2 4PS, jointly organised with Scottish CND
STIRLING: 24 Oct 7pm, Stirling University, jointly organised with Stirling Uni Greens
GLASGOW: 26 Oct 12.30pm, City Chambers, George Square. Contributing to a seminar organised by Nuclear Free Local Authorities Scotland.

ALL WELCOME

The Nukewatch report “Unready Scotland” raises sharp questions about the preparedness of the civil authorities in Scotland to respond to a serious incident involving the transport by road of UK nuclear warheads, with its unique combination of high explosives and toxic nuclear materials.Its authors, Nukewatchers Jane Tallents and David Mackenzie, will set out the context for the report, its key findings, and comment on what response there has from the UK Ministry of Defence, the affected Scottish local authorities and the Scottish Government.

Nukewatch monitors and tracks the movement of British weapons of mass destruction from the atomic weapon factories in Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire to Coulport on Loch Long, where the warheads are stored and loaded onto the Trident submarines. Unready Scotland is based on a survey of Scottish local authorities on or near known convoy routes, conducted in the autumn of 2016 by the office of Mark Ruskell MSP and the observations and research by Nukewatch and other related campaigns over the years.

More information and the full report

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