Question reference: S6W-13074
- Date lodged: 9 December 2022
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Current status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 5 January 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to increasing the quantity of environmental bathing water sampling from six months a year to 12, in light of the increase in wild swimming as a hobby across Scotland, and the reported increased risk of sewage overflows in winter weather, and what its position is on whether checking for six months only is sufficient for swimming safety.
Answer
The Bathing Waters (Scotland) Regulations 2008 enable Scottish Ministers to designate a bathing season in a period where they expect a large number of people to bathe at a designated bathing water. The definition of bathers, in this instance, is exclusive to paddlers and swimmers and does not cover other water users.
For all 87 designated bathing waters in Scotland the bathing season runs from 1 June to 15 September each year, in accordance with the traditional period of peak usage. In comparison with the 3.5 month bathing season in Scotland across Europe the season length varies from 2 months in Sweden to 6 months in Cypress.
The aim of the Bathing Waters Regulations is to minimise the risks to human health to swimmers and paddlers from bacteriological impacts whilst bathing. It would be disproportionately costly to monitor bathing waters outwith the current bathing water season when they are not regularly used by large numbers of bathers. General health advice on wild swimming is available from the UK Health Security Agency at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/swim-healthy-leaflet/swim-healthy , which is also applicable to Scotland
The number of bathing waters in Scotland has increased since last year and now stands at 87, with 98% achieving the bathing water quality standards and more rated excellent than ever before.