Stinking cover up as sewage data hidden until after the election

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today said that the decision by Scottish Water to delay publication of key figures on the number of sewage dumps that took place last year until after the election looks like “a stinking cover up.”

New figures covering the number of occasions sewage leaked into Scotland’s rivers, beaches and waterways was due to be published before the end of March. However, on Tuesday the final possible date for publication, Scottish Water uploaded the following note on its website:

“Over the past three years, Scottish Water has published its annual ‘overflow event’ data from monitors each March. This covered around 300 locations where we are required to report overflow data to SEPA, as well as other sites where monitoring is in place and the data is reliable. This year, we will delay publication of the updated annual overflow data until after the Holyrood election on 7 May.”

The figures are now set to be delayed until the end of August, well beyond the original publication timing of the end of March.

The original March publication timing was confirmed by the Scottish Government in a PQ in September 2025.

Figures published last year showed that there were at least 24,398 sewage discharges in 2024, however with 1,000 new monitors installed over the course of the year, the 2025 figures are anticipated to be significantly higher.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

“If Scottish Water were so concerned about not publishing during the election period, they could have published this data a week ago and avoided the problem.

“Instead, this looks suspiciously like a stinking cover up.

“For years ministers have made excuses for Scotland’s government-owned water company. Now the public could be forgiven for thinking the water company seem to be repaying the favour by hiding embarrassing information from the public until after the election.

“Anyone who has followed this story knows that the number of sewage monitors has increased over the last year and so the number of known sewage dumps is likely to have risen sharply too.

“SNP ministers don’t seem to care that the government-owned water company dumps millions of litres of sewage throughout our rivers, lochs and beaches.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats will introduce a Clean Water Act to take the sewage scandal seriously, track down and report every sewage dump, and replace outdated standards with modern enforceable regulation. Wherever you are, if you care about the health of Scotland’s rivers and beaches, you should back Scottish Liberal Democrats on your peach regional ballot and turf out the SNP.”