SNP must stop pretending Scotland is immune from sewage scandal

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today said that the SNP must stop pretending that Scotland is immune from the sewage scandal, as Sir Jon Cunliffe publishes a report into the water industry in England, including a call to scrap Ofwat.

In Scotland there were 24,398 sewage dumps recorded in 2024, which lasted for a staggering 208,377 hours. However, this is likely to be a significant underestimate because unlike in England where almost every outflow is monitored, monitoring is far more limited in Scotland.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have led the charge to upgrade Scotland’s water network and clamp down on sewage dumping. In recent months the party has revealed:

• more than 10% of Scotland’s piping uses asbestos piping and that more than half of these pipes are now over their safe lifespan.
• Scottish Water have admitted that dozens of “high-priority” projects to stop the worst sewage releases in Scotland have still not been carried out more than two years on.
• that there are 12 sewage overflow sites deemed by Scottish Water to be at risk of dumping sewage in dry weather, including two sites at Cramond in Edinburgh.
• Scottish Water have been caught with non-compliant sewages sites more than 250 times in just three years.

Meanwhile Scottish Water have increased bosses’ bonuses by more than a third and water bills increased by 9.9% in April.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

“The SNP must stop pretending Scotland is immune from the sewage scandal. We know there are tens of thousands of spills every year but no one is taking responsibility.

“The Scottish Government needs to start finally taking the sewage crisis seriously and get tough on the government owned water company. That includes looking at whether our own system of regulation is fit-for-purpose.

“Thames Water just got fined £100 million for sewage dumping, but there are never any consequences here in Scotland. Perhaps that is because ministers know that it is actually their government that’s at fault for this problem.

“To turn the tide on the sewage scandal, Scottish Liberal Democrats have published plans for a Clean Water Act that would bring our sewage network into the 21st century, clamp down on dumping and get to the bottom of this disgusting practice."