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SEPA’s grant in aid funding from Scottish Government has increased over the last five-year period from £34,936,000 to £41,406,000. SEPA determine the amount of resources allocated to water quality testing through their Annual Operating Plan in each year in agreement with the Scottish Government

SEPA Grant in Aid Funding

£34,963,000 in 2018-19

£34,425,000 in 2019-20

£37,098,000 in 2020-21

£44,449,000 in 2021-22

£41,406,000 in 2022-23

The Scottish Government understands the important issue of emerging contaminates of concern and has been funding research in this area since 2016 through strategic research at the James Hutton Institute, the Centre of Expertise on Water (CREW), and the Hydro Nation Scholars programme. For example, these studies produced the first national assessment of pharmaceutical pollution in Scotland’s water environment, published in 2022, covering existing data on 60 pharmaceuticals between 2014 and 2019.

Building on the earlier studies described above, the Scottish Government continues to support active research, by investing £32m per year overall, under the current RESAS Strategic Research Programme 2022-2027, and the Centre of Expertise on Water. Current plans include work which will further develop the understanding of sources and levels of emerging contaminants in Scotland’s freshwaters and river sediments and recommend priorities and strategic approaches for future monitoring in Scotland.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is currently trialling a new water analysis technique and is considering which chemicals of emerging concern to Scotland’s environment should be built into its surveillance network. SEPA is working with various UK partner organisations to identify and prioritise chemicals of emerging concern in the environment.

For example, Scottish Water has worked in partnership with the SEPA for many years in the Chemical Investigation Programme (Scotland). Through environmental investigation this project identifies contaminants of concern, their sources and concentrations leaving the sewerage system and how they should be addressed in the most sustainable way.

The Remote and Rural General Practice Working Group was created in 2018 to support the implementation of the GP Contract in remote and rural areas. It met between 2018 and 2022. In 2020, the Group put forward recommendations to Ministers which are contained within its Shaping the Future Together Report. The Group last met on the 9 th June 2022 and agreed to bring the Group to an end.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting and developing rural general practice and primary care. In terms of planned developments, The Scottish Government is working to develop a Remote and Rural workforce recruitment strategy by the end of 2024. This will support employers to ensure that the Health and Social Care needs of people who live in remote and rural communities are met. In addition, The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2021-22 included a commitment to create a centre of excellence for rural and remote medicine and social care, with scoping work starting in 2021-22. The Scottish Government has been working closely with NHS Education Scotland (NES) over recent months to carry out extensive scoping and consultation with stakeholders. NES has submitted a business case for the Centre. The Scottish Government is evaluating the business case and considering next steps.

We are already taking forward a range of initiatives to support recruitment and retention of workforce in rural General Practice. The Golden Hello scheme offers a one-off bursary of £10,000 to every GP taking up an eligible post in a remote and rural area. Furthermore, ScotGEM is a four-year graduate-entry medical degree which began in 2018, with a focus on rural medicine and healthcare improvement, supporting graduates to choose careers in general practice. The Scottish Government is also supporting an initiative by the four rural boards in the north of Scotland, NHS Shetland, NHS Orkney, NHS Highland and NHS Western Isles who have piloted an innovative recruitment campaign called Rediscover The Joy (RTJ). RTJ aims to recruit experienced GPs to provide support for remote and rural practices.

This information is publicly available and can be found on the website of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service - https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/search-judgments/fatal-accident-inquiries

As the First Minister indicated in Parliament on 27 October, she was aware of the report and stated “that those reports are deeply concerning, and I want to be very clear that we take them extremely seriously. Any foreign country that operates in Scotland must abide by Scottish law. The Scottish Government fully supports individuals’ rights to freedom of expression, which is an extremely important principle".

The First Minister went on to say: "Obviously, those matters require to be fully and properly investigated. It would not be appropriate for me to go into too much detail, but I know, as a result of a conversation that I had yesterday with the Chief Constable, that the police are aware of those reports. Of course, the police are operationally independent, and it is up to them to determine what investigations would be appropriate. However, they are aware of those reports, and I repeat that those reports require to be treated extremely seriously.”

We are working with all NHS Boards to support them to implement the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care , including working with NHS Lanarkshire through regular engagement.

NHS Education for Scotland CAMHS Workforce data, published 6 September 2022, showed an increase of 17% in CAMHS community staffing in NHS Lanarkshire compared to March 2021. This CAMHS workforce data includes Neurodevelopmental staffing.

Civil solicitors have always covered a wide geographical area. The location of firms does not appear to support the assertion that advice is not available. Unlike in other jurisdictions, the Scottish Government has maintained wide access to legal aid for civil law issues. In addition to the availability of legal aid for private legal firms, we also fund a number of law centres who provide advice and representation on issues not normally dealt with by commercial firms, as well as localised advice providers who are supported by grant funding from the legal aid fund. We also fund public legal services through the Civil Legal Assistance Office. All of these services can and do operate across a wide geographic area.

SEPA continues to monitor ongoing environmental risks at the site and completed its latest survey in August 2022. This found no significant increasing trends associated with the migration of landfill gas or impact to groundwater from leachate.

SEPA publishes monitoring updates and the latest update (August 2022) will be available shortly here: Tarbolton Moss Landfill | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

The Scottish Government has made funding available to support public partners to implement the first phase of works at Tarbolton. In July, SEPA commissioned work, which was successfully completed, to remove Giant Hogweed from the site. We are working with public partners to begin work to implement leachate management as soon as possible. In order to move forward with this work, we are seeking to address complex legal issues associated with the ownerless status of the site.

With funding from the Scottish Government, in December 2021, SEPA contracted an environmental consultant to manage the construction of a leachate management system at the former landfill site at Tarbolton Moss, to prevent the ongoing discharges of landfill leachate to neighbouring watercourses and make it possible for leachate disposal to the public sewerage system. The design phase is now complete. As the answer to S6W-11600 on the 4 November 2022 updates, we are working with public partners to begin work to implement leachate management as soon as possible. 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 .