Chamber and committees

The Cross-Sector Working Group on RAAC remains our main forum for engagement with public sector partners and key stakeholders in the private sector. Meetings provide updates on sector progress, recent UK information and topics of interest such as RAAC identification and assessment process and a presentation and Q&A with IStructE. The minutes of the meetings of that group are published on The Scottish Government Website.

Outwith those meetings, officials will also continue to engage with sector organisations on a one-to-one basis.

The Bathing Water Directive is implemented in Scotland by the Bathing Waters (Scotland) Regulations 2008. Under these Regulations Scottish Ministers designate bathing waters where they expect a large number of people to bathe, having regard to past trends and infrastructure and facilities provided, or other measures taken to promote bathing. We have set this figure at around 150 bathers. Across Europe large numbers of bathers can range up to 300 bathers per day.

We have taken a proportionate approach to designating bathing waters and there are no plans to change it. 2023 not only sees the highest number of bathing waters ever in Scotland, but the highest number rated excellent for water quality – and a total of 98% of locations achieving a classification of sufficient or better.

The Cross-Sector Working Group on RAAC remains our main forum for engagement with key stakeholders in the private sector. The minutes of the meetings of that group are published on The Scottish Government Website.

Outwith those meetings, officials will also continue to engage with organisations on a one-to-one basis.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) regulates sewage discharges to the water environment under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 and must consider protection of designated nature conservation areas when determining discharge standards.

As part of River Basin Management Planning, when setting objectives for protection and improvement of the water environment SEPA also considers impacts to the condition of areas protected for nature conservation. SEPA has identified 13 conservation areas in Scotland which are not at their target objective for nature conservation and a contributing factor identified is the status of the water environment. However, none of the 13 areas are failing to meet good ecological condition due to sewage discharges.

Scotland’s River Basin Management Plan sets out measures for these areas to improve the status of the water environment, which will also contribute to improving the condition of the protected nature conservation area.

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-15158 on 13 March 2023 for further information on Scottish Water’s approach to identifying locations for new CSO monitors.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I last met Scottish Water on 7 June 2023.

In accordance with the Scotland Act 1998, fines received by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency are returned to the Scottish Consolidated Fund.

The accounts for the Scottish Consolidated Fund are published annually by the Scottish Government and the most recent is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-consolidated-fund-accounts-year-ended-31-march-2022/ .

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked its Chief Executive to respond. His response is as follows:

Scottish Water does not collate and report annual figures for the number of contacts received about discharges from combined sewer overflows separate from other sewage-related issues reported to them, such as blockages and sewer flooding, and these figures would not be available by area. However, Scottish Water publishes all reportable pollution events each year to SEPA and this information is available in their annual reports, which can be found at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Help-and-Resources/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Annual-Reports .

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked its Chief Executive to respond. His response is as follows:

The data provided in the following table is an extract from the Annual Returns, publicly available on the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) website. The data is contained in the D tables lines D6.3 for New Sewers added during the year and D6.6 for Sewers replaced. Further detail can be found in the commentary to the Annual Returns which are also published on the WICS website. Data is only available from 2015-16 as before this period Scottish Water did not report length of new sewers or length of sewers replaced in the tables.

As previously explained in my answer to S6W-15158 on 13 March 2023, Scottish Water has identified priority locations for 1,000 spill monitors, with installation programmed over 2023 and 2024. Decisions about the locations of these monitors are not based on local authority boundary; locations were identified based on amenity levels and predicted spill frequencies, and agreed with SEPA.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers