Cash support sent to Storm Babet and Gaza: FOI release

Information requested

1. Total amount of money sent by the Scottish Government to help support those affected by Storm Babet. Please confirm the up to date figure.
2. The date when the first cash support was sent.
3. Total amount of money sent by the Scottish Government to support Gaza.
4. The date the cash support to Gaza was sent.
5. Where exactly was this cash support to Gaza sent? Eg. Palestine Government, Charity, Red Cross etc.

Response

Answers to questions 1 and 2:

Funding is being provided to local authorities to allow them to issue flat rate grants to all households and businesses suffering from the impacts of Storm Babet. The grants will comprise a £1,500 community recovery grant for those whose properties have been flooded, and a £3,000 business Scottish Ministers, special advisers and the Permanent Secretary are covered by the terms of the Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016. See recovery grant for businesses, community groups and organisations impacted by flooding. Grants will be administered by eligible local authorities which are those that had an exceptional red warning for rain during October’s storm.

Letters were issued to Angus Council and Aberdeenshire Council on 28 November offering funding of £676,000 and £33,000 respectively, Dundee City Council on 29 November offering funding of £221,100 and Perth and Kinross Council on 30 November offering funding of £11,500 to enable them to make the grant payments. The funding will be paid as a redetermination of the General Revenue Grant. Applications opened on 4 December and local authorities have begun paying out grants to those affected.

£100k of additional funding is also being allocated to Angus Council to help those families who have lost everything during Storm Babet to resettle and rebuild their lives. This additional amount will be paid as a redetermination of Angus Council’s General Revenue Grant. Angus Council received a letter
confirming this funding on Thursday 7 December.

The Scottish Government has initiated and extended the Bellwin Scheme to help councils with weather related costs for Storm Babet. To date 8 local authorities have notified the Scottish Government of a potential claim relating to Storm Babet. The Scottish Government is currently working with Local Authorities on their claims. The Scheme addresses revenue and uninsurable expenditure incurred during the incident. Councils have four months from the date of the incident to make an interim claim, and final claims must be received within eight months.

The Scottish Government has also set aside a budget of £1.8 million to support farmers in repairing flood banks damaged by the extreme rainfall during October, offering up to £30,000 per individual business to reinstate flood banks to their pre-damage levels. The agriculture floodbank repair scheme opened for applications on Wednesday 6 December, and will compensate farmers in Aberdeen, Perth and Kinross, Angus, Fife, Moray and Speyside for the cost of repairing damaged floodbanks.

Answers to questions 3 to 5:

3. The Scottish Government has pledged £750,000 in humanitarian aid for Gaza. Further information on these pledges can be found on the Scottish Government's website.

Humanitarian aid funding - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) (£500,000)

Humanitarian aid for Gaza - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) (additional £250,000)

4. The payment was approved on 29 November 2023.

5. All the funding for humanitarian aid for Gaza was allocated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for distribution.

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