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Rather than deploying permanent monitoring, which is the common approach for water companies in England, Scottish Water has taken an outcomes focussed approach by carrying out comprehensive Scotland-wide environmental modelling (in partnership with SEPA) to assess the impacts of its assets on water quality during the 2015 to 2021 investment period.

The models which Scottish Water developed allowed it to understand when CSOs will spill, under what rainfall conditions these spills occur and the impact these will have on the environment. This work has allowed Scottish Water and SEPA to prioritise environmental focus and Scottish Water to target its investments accordingly. Adopting this approach has seen consistent improvement in Scotland’s water quality with 87% of all waterbodies meeting Good Status or beyond and 97% of bathing waters meeting or exceeding minimum standards as assessed by SEPA.

In addition to the progress made in improving water quality, Scottish Water recognised the need for more transparency in overflow operation and set out the commitment to install more monitors and to publish the data from these in its Improving Urban Waters routemap.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) currently licences and regulates 345 sewer networks operated by Scottish Water, carrying out inspections on a rolling basis under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (CAR).

SEPA is currently consulting on its proposals for a new Environmental Performance Assessment Scheme to improve overall levels of compliance, which is available at .

In 2025, the Scottish Government is incorporating CAR, along with the authorising regimes for industrial emissions, radioactive substances, and waste, into an integrated authorisation framework called the Environmental Authorisation (Scotland) Regulations 2018. One of the main benefits of an integrated authorisation framework for SEPA is more effective enforcement tools to better deal with non-compliant sites and protect the environment. Other benefits are improved efficiency and a more risk based, targeted approach to enforcement.

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

Scottish Water has already published this data at .

Currently, data from around 1,100 overflow monitor locations is included on the overflow map. As additional monitors are installed and data from these is checked, more monitor locations are added to the overflow map.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency monitors the water quality of Scotland’s rivers and designated bathing beaches and publishes its classification results annually.

87% of Scotland’s entire water environment is assessed by SEPA as having a high or good classification for water quality, up from 82% in 2014, and for rivers the figure is 85%.

SEPA’s most recent Bathing Waters classification shows that 97% of Scotland’s bathing waters currently achieve the bathing water quality standards with 87% being rated good or excellent, up from 84% in 2023.

Scotland is renowned worldwide for the quality of our rivers, lochs and seas, supporting our tourism economy with our natural environment attracting millions of visitors every year with a total of 109 million tourism visits to Scotland in 2023.

Our consultation on proposals for a Social Housing Net Zero Standard estimated total upfront clean heat and energy efficiency costs of around £6 billion for social housing. The Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund supports public and private investment by covering 50% of eligible costs for energy efficiency upgrades and 60% for clean heat installations. The Fund has invested approximately £70 million in social housing projects across Scotland.

The recent Green Heat Finance Taskforce Part 2 Report explores how to attract increased private investment, including through mechanisms which spread repayment costs over a longer timeframe for social housing and other collective property retrofit projects. The Scottish Government will respond to the Taskforce recommendations in the coming months.

Our consultation last year on a new Social Housing Net Zero Standard (SHNZS) asked for views on proposals to require social landlords to improve fabric efficiency and install clean heating where it is technically feasible and cost-effective to do so. Feedback from this consultation estimated the total upfront costs for the sector to 2045 of installing clean heating systems and improving energy efficiency would be around £6 billion, with an average cost per home of around £14,000.

We continue to discuss next steps for the proposed Standard and longer term financing options with key stakeholders from the social housing sector. I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-36595 on 24 April 2025 and S6W-36596 on 1 May 2025 for further context.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Our consultation on proposals for a Social Housing Net Zero Standard estimated the total upfront costs of installing clean heating systems and improving energy efficiency in social housing would be around £6 billion by 2045, with an average cost per home of around £14,000.

Financing the clean heat transition for social housing will require both public and private contributions, with the recent Green Heat Finance Taskforce Part 2 report exploring how to attract greater private investment including through mechanisms which spread repayment costs over a longer timeframe. The Scottish Government will respond to the Taskforce report in the coming months.

The move to the Preference Informed Allocation (PIA) model was supported by the Medical Schools Council, the British Medical Association and all four UK governments. Medical students were extensively consulted on the changes and their impact, with 66% in favour of the change.

2024 recruitment data shows that 75.42% of applicants to UK Foundation programmes received their first choice of foundation school, an increase from the 2023 cycle (pre-PIA) of 71.02%. This has risen further in 2025 to 83.78%, indicating that more applicants are being allocated to their first choice compared with previous years, an improvement that has continued since PIA was first introduced.

The first year of the PIA process has resulted in more resident foundation doctors wanting to train in Scotland being allocated a place in Scotland and has resulted in a more even and equitable distribution of Foundation doctors across NHS Scotland Boards.

More information about the move to the PIA can be found at the following link:

Assaults committed against anyone including retail workers are unacceptable and law enforcement has a range of powers available in dealing with such behaviour.

Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics define a conviction rate as the proportion of people prosecuted in court that are subsequently convicted and are recorded in the financial year in which the case concluded in court. Where the main charge (the most serious offence) was under section 1 of the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-Restricted Products) (Scotland) Act 2021, the latest official data relates to the period 2022-23 and this showed a conviction rate of 95%, with 163 convictions out of 172 prosecuted persons.

More generally, the number of charges reported to Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service of offences under the 2021 Act in the period since it was introduced in August 2021 is 6,577. This is for the period up to March 2025. Please note it takes time for criminal cases to flow through the justice system from being recorded by the police through to reporting to prosecutors, decisions being made whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute and a prosecution proceeding through to conviction and sentence. In addition, a single case may include multiple charges and in general counts of charges, cases and people are distinct and provide different perspectives on the justice system. As such, care must be taken in use of data which seeks to assess the rate at which reports made and recorded by the police lead to prosecution and conviction.

The next set of criminal proceedings data for the period 2023-24 is currently being processed and will be available later in the year. This will contain conviction rates for 2023-24, including the second full year under the 2021 Act.

Shipping safety is a matter reserved to the UK Government. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is responsible for shipping regulations and safety, including Automatic Identification System (AIS) requirements. The Scottish Government expects the highest shipping safety standard to be applied on those vessels accessing Scotland’s waters and ports.

The Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government uses a range of tools and technologies to support the integrated management of Scotland’s seas, including the use of Vessel Monitoring Systems and Remote Electronic Monitoring on fishing vessels. Data generated from such technology can be used for fisheries management, environmental protection and marine planning purposes.

The Scottish Government’s Fisheries Management Strategy and its Delivery Plan (updated 2025) sets out our policy initiatives to further protect the environment. In 2025, we will be taking forward the outcomes of a consultation on requiring tracking and monitoring technology on all under 12 metre fishing vessels in Scottish waters.