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Pay negotiations are a matter for Scottish Water as the employer and the Trade Unions. Industrial action has been suspended pending a ballot on a new offer.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22833 on 23 November 2023. 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 .

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland’s active and past Enforcement Notices are published on www.dwqr.scot/regulator-activity/enforcement/ . Monitoring requirements for Scottish Water are set out in The Public Water Supplies (Scotland) Regulations 2014. Some additional sampling is specified as a requirement of Enforcement Notices, and Scottish Water is expected to undertake additional operational sampling based on its assessment of risk.

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator’s annual reports summarise data on water quality in public and private supplies across Scotland, as well as covering water quality events and incidents and consumer contacts to Scottish Water. They are available at www.dwqr.scot/information/annual-report/ .

Scottish Water publishes information on staffing levels in its Annual Reports, available at www.scottishwater.co.uk/Help-and-Resources/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Annual-Reports .

The industrial action and pay negotiations are a matter for Scottish Water as the employer and the recognised Trade Unions. Correspondence was received from UNISON, GMB and Unite.

Over the last 5 years, Scottish Water’s workforce has remained broadly stable at around 4,500 employees. It supports thousands of additional jobs through its supply chain and provides information on this in its Annual Reports, available at www.scottishwater.co.uk/Help-and-Resources/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Annual-Reports . In 2022-23, 75% of its supply chain was made up of SMEs and more than 90% of its spend was on organisations located in Scotland.

While we have not undertaken a review of the implementation of the surcharge which may be applied to applications which are submitted where development has been carried out without permission.

We continue to liaise with Heads of Planning Scotland to understand the impact of the changes to planning fees implemented in 2022, on the overall resourcing of planning services.

Scottish Water sets out information on its supply chain and broader expenditure in its Annual Reports, available at www.scottishwater.co.uk/Help-and-Resources/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Annual-Reports .

Scottish Water holds information for seven years, in line with HMRC guidance. The following information has been provided for the last seven years across water and waste water. A new framework was put in place in 2021-22.

Scottish Water publishes its procurement strategy and reports on its website at www.scottishwater.co.uk/Help-and-Resources/Document-Hub/Key-Publications/Procurement-and-Supply .