To ask the Scottish Government what role the Scottish Government resilience room would play in the event of a major nuclear incident. (S6O-03525)

Civil and defence nuclear safety are reserved matters. However, the Scottish Government holds responsibility for the off-site consequence management of a nuclear incident effect in Scotland.

The Scottish Government resilience room is the Scottish Government’s central co-ordination mechanism for responding to civil contingencies and complex emergencies. In the case of a major nuclear incident, that mechanism would activate to facilitate an effective Scottish Government response to the incident. The resilience room would provide Scottish ministers and senior officials with situational awareness, facilitate Government co-ordination and support communication with responders at all levels in Scotland and, of course, with the United Kingdom Government.

As the cabinet secretary is aware, the UK’s nuclear submarine fleet is based at Faslane, which is 25 miles from Glasgow. In the event of a major nuclear incident, the Ministry of Defence’s conservative projections suggest wholesale evacuation within a 30-mile radius and a shelter warning for everyone extended over a 75-mile radius. Given the increasing frequency of nuclear incidents on the Clyde and the very real danger to life that that could present, does the minister agree that all parties in the Parliament should work together in calling for the removal of nuclear weapons from Scotland?

I am, of course, in favour of all parties working together. The Scottish Government’s position on nuclear weapons is clear and long-standing: we are firmly opposed to the possession, threat and use of nuclear weapons. They are strategically and economically wrong; they are indiscriminate and devastating in their impacts; and their use would bring unspeakable humanitarian suffering and widespread environmental damage.

The Scottish Government has consistently expressed a commitment to removing nuclear weapons from Scotland in the safest and most expeditious manner possible, following a vote for independence. That position was last set out in the recent paper in the “Building a New Scotland” series, “An independent Scotland’s place in the world”.