The Scottish Government recognises the importance of emerging chemicals of concern, such as prescription pharmaceuticals and works closely with Scottish Water and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to develop further understanding and take appropriate action in this area.Scottish Water have a number of activities either ongoing or in development including a sampling programme at selected treatment works to quantify the impact of real time control on treatment of substances of emerging concern, including pharmaceuticals and a process optimisation trial to see whether better removal of steroids can be achieved at Activated Sludge Treatment Plants.Scottish Water also directly funds research in this area including two PhD projects at Glasgow Caledonian and Robert Gordon Universities which look at reducing anti-microbial resistance and the treatment potential of septic tanks for pharmaceuticals.