Press release
The Scottish government expects that the review it has commissioned on the readiness of the Scottish civil authorities to respond to an incident involving the transport by road of nuclear warheads will be published early in 2019.
The indication comes in a letter to Nukewatch from the office of Community Safety Minister Ash Denham. In May of this year Denham’s predecessor, Annabelle Ewing, at the close of a parliamentary debate on the issue, promised that a review of the arrangements would be sought from police and fire service inspectorates.
The letter, in response to a query from Nukewatch about the timing of the review, also says:
“It is important to all those engaged in the preparedness review that it is comprehensive in nature, as open and transparent as possible and culminates in a publicly available report, within a reasonable timescale.”
For Nukewatch David Mackenzie said:
“Our 2017 report Unready Scotland ended with the recommendation that SCOTGOV should conduct just such a review and we are pleased at the progress that is being made. Transparency is vital over an issue of such public concern and at a time of growing awareness of the threats to safety posed by the transport of nuclear warheads. Each and every SCOTGOV minister has signed the ICAN parliamentary pledge to work for the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and facing up to the grim realities of the warhead transport is a good step towards compliance with the Treaty’s requirements.”
