Chamber and committees

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water has used an economic assessment that balances the cost of supplying the water with the cost of finding and fixing leaks to determine Scottish Water's target leakage level of 408ML/d. In future iterations Scottish Water will apply estimates of future water supply side investment which will be guided by climate change impacts and other factors, e.g. moving populations.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water develops appraisals on an ongoing basis, prioritising based on the risks to water supply. Scottish Water currently has plans to appraise seven systems, supplying a population of over 1 million people, over the next 3 years. As and when these appraisals are complete they are shared with regulators and stakeholders.

The investment programme is dynamic and regularly reviewed and prioritised as circumstances change; as such there is no conclusion to the overall process, only for individual systems.

Yes, the Scottish Government annual surveys continue to gather data, in order to support future assessments on microplastics in surface water. Although there is currently no internationally agreed baseline for microplastics in surface water, as referenced in the answer to question S6W-23886, all our marine litter data contributes to regional monitoring across the North East Atlantic, through OSPAR (the Oslo-Paris Convention), and would contribute to any baseline developed in the future.

Further to the answers to questions S6W-01058 on 13 July 2021, S6W-23231 on 11 December 2023, S6W-23886 on 12 January 2024, S6W-23887 on 9 January 2024, and S6W-24462 on 16 January 2024, our microplastics monitoring programme began in the winter of 2013, and has continued to undertake annual surveys since that time. The current data collection season runs from November 2023 to the end of January 2024.

Data from this monitoring programme enabled the initial assessment for microplastics in surface water to be conducted. This was published in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020, which can be viewed at https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment/microplastics-surface-water

As referenced in the answer to question S6W-24462 on 16 January 2024, the 2022-23 data is currently undergoing quality control and processing. Once the 2023-24 data collection season has concluded, the processing will commence on the data for the whole season. Data from both these years will be published once processed.

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 .

CalMac have confirmed they do not distinguish between fuel type when carrying vehicles on vessels.

The following table shows the current, maximum number of cars that each current and planned vessel can carry:

Scottish Water faces many technical challenges providing drought resilience compared to England and Wales. Due to the geography of Scotland, and population spread, Scottish Water operates many more water resource zones and has less connectivity between zones as is the case in the rest of the UK.

Despite the challenges, Scottish Water currently plans to maintain supplies through the worst historic drought, using fixed assets and drought plan contingencies which are broadly the equivalent of a 1 in 150 year return period. Scottish Water is looking to develop processes to move toward assessing drought risk to a 1 in 500 worst plausible drought level, which is similar to companies in England and Wales.

Drought has historically been more prevalent in England, however, the climate emergency means that drought is becoming more common and more severe in Scotland, hence our developing processes. Our water, wastewater and drainage policy consultation ( https://consult.gov.scot/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/water-wastewater-and-drainage-policy-consultation/ ) seeks views on how Scotland should adapt.

The figures quoted in these questions are both correct. The first figure of sites sampled from 2013-14 to 2019-20 is from a published assessment, and the second figure is from the number of sites visited within the raw data that has been published to date (2013-14 to 2021-22).

The Scottish Government microplastics monitoring programme began in the winter of 2013, and has undertaken annual surveys since that time. The sample sites are distributed throughout the 11 Scottish Marine Regions and the Offshore Marine Regions. Not all Regions were sampled in every year and the number of sampling sites visited also varied between years.

In reference to question S6W-23231, the microplastics in surface water assessment in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020 used data from 2013-14 to 2019-20. For this assessment data from 398 sample sites were included. This assessment can be viewed at https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment/microplastics-surface-water

The raw data from the monitoring programme is publicly available but not all of this data is yet included in published assessments. In reference to question S6W-23887, the number of sites sampled up to and including 2021-22 is 479. The dataset can be viewed at https://data.marine.gov.scot/dataset/dataset-sources-sinks-and-hazards-micro-plastics-scotland%E2%80%99s-seas-2013-present/resource#{query:{from:400},view-grid:{columnsWidth:[{column:!season,width:157},{column:!date_deploy,width:149}]}}

Data for 2022-23, and the current sampling year of 2023-24 have not yet been published. Once raw data has been collected it needs to undergo quality control and processing before it can be used and published. The 2022-23 data is currently undergoing this process. The 2023-24 data collection season has not yet concluded, and the processing will commence when the data for the whole year is complete.

The Scottish Government microplastics monitoring programme began in 2013, and has undertaken annual surveys since that time. The Scottish Government has conducted an initial assessment for microplastics in surface water, which was published in Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020, using data from 2013-14 to 2019-20. This assessment can be viewed at https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment/microplastics-surface-water

There is currently no internationally agreed baseline for microplastics in surface water, which is mainly due to very few countries conducting this sampling. The sampling of microplastics in surface water generates highly variable data. Due to this variable nature, the data Scottish Government currently holds is not sufficient to produce trends, and several more years of sampling would be needed for a scientifically robust analysis to be conducted and support future assessments.

Our microplastic sampling compliments our wider marine litter monitoring programme and outputs from this have been used to inform the action plan of our revised Marine Litter Strategy published in 2022. All of these actions help address microplastic pollution as they target macro litter which can break down into microplastics, such as fishing gear and wet-wipes containing plastic, as well as microplastics directly in the form of plastic pellets. Plastic pellets are the second largest source of primary microplastic pollution globally. Our work on pellets has been ground breaking and used to inform multiple outputs: the first internationally applicable Publicly Available Specification which is a form of standard published by the British Standards Institution and sets best handling practice requirements for businesses, an internationally adopted recommendation for pellet handling and certification schemes through the Oslo Paris Convention, and our work has also supported the development of a European certification scheme to prevent pellet loss. This follows a previous action on microplastics in the form of legislation to ban microbeads from rinse-off personal care products in 2018.

Over the last five years Scottish Water has used social media, community events and other activities such as school visits to encourage people to use water wisely. As part of this, over 100,000 water saving packs have been distributed. Each summer Scottish Water also issues news releases to encourage people to use water wisely and in times of prolonged warm, dry weather, it works with media outlets to encourage coverage of the issue. The costs are incorporated into normal operations and activities

In 2022 Scottish Water launched a behaviour change campaign to raise awareness that 'Water is Always Worth Saving', highlighting water as a precious natural resource. The effectiveness of this campaign is being measured by awareness, attitude and reported behaviours. By August 2023, 58% of people agreed that water is a precious natural resource (up 5% pre-campaign), 81% reported that they would be more careful with water use (up 12% pre-campaign), and 75% said they would take less time in the shower (up 6% pre-campaign).

The cost for the campaign for 2022-23 was £315,000. Almost all the materials developed have been re-used in 2023 and will continue to be used, spreading any cost of production and delivering best value for money. The costs incurred for 2023-24 will be reconciled in the next financial year. The integrated campaign utilises TV and Radio ads, outdoor ads, social/digital media, PR, customer engagement and partnerships with other organisations.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold this information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water is investing around £110m every year in the operating and capital costs of managing leakage, repairing bursts and rehabilitating water networks. With the capital programme now around £1bn per annum (including responsive repair and refurbishment expenditure) this is equivalent to 8%-10% of capital expenditure.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold this information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water evaluates long-term supply and demand positions for water resources on a water supply zone basis, looking over a 25 year period and taking into account growth, population change and climate change effects. Further to this, Scottish Water is currently developing options appraisals for resolving deficits to be considered as part of the development of the next investment planning cycle
‎ 2027-33. Options that will be considered are demand reduction, connections to other supply zones, and source and treatment augmentations. The package of solutions for each zone will be specific to their circumstances.

As an example, the Glasgow Resilience Scheme is costing some £120million. This is providing greater resilience of water supplies for a million customers across Ayrshire and Glasgow by allowing water to be moved between catchments.