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Quarter 3 Performance Report

Summary

Board Report Number: SEPA 05/23

We present the third quarterly corporate performance report of this financial year, covering the period October- December 2022.

The report describes progress made on the ten performance measures during Quarter 3.

Executive summary

This Quarter 3 corporate performance report covers the period October - December 2022. It provides an update on the progress of the ten performance measures set out in the Annual Operating Plan 2022-2023.

Performance

By the end of Quarter 3 we are reporting five measures as Green, three measures as Amber, and two measures as Red.

Regulation

We are reporting Measure 1: ‘No deterioration in the length of time it takes to determine licences’ as Green. There continues to be an improvement in the number of new licences and variations that have been determined compared to the average reported in 2021.

We are reporting Measure 2: ‘Our plans to review and modify authorisations are on track’ as Amber. This measure comprises several components relating to setting revised controls in authorisations to drive environmental improvements from and industrial activities. Most components under this measure are Green however two elements of this work are Amber, which is reflected in the overall measure status. These are:

• The ‘Best Available Techniques’ reference documents review work which is at Amber. Specifically, the activity area of Waste Treatment remains a significant challenge. We have resource in place and training has been provided with technical and specialist support in place.
• The River Basin Management Plan section of this measure is at Amber. One out of four areas for review is not complete and is unlikely to be complete by the end of Quarter 4. Three out of the four areas for review are either completed or are on target to be by the end of the year. The fourth area target was to vary licences for five key Scottish Water discharges, based on the standard process. We have completed the necessary work to vary the licences. In October, Scottish Water applied for a “disproportionate cost” exemption at each discharge. This additional unplanned work will not be complete by April 2023.

We are reporting Measure 3: ‘We have significantly increased monitoring to improve our understanding of the effect of regulation on the environment’, Measure 4: 'An improvement in compliance at prioritised, non-compliant sites’, and Measure 5: ‘Implementation of a registration system to support the Deposit Return Scheme by 1 January 2023’ as Green. We have continued to make progress in implementing our plans to increase our monitoring activities, developing our authorised site dataset, taking enforcement action at two unauthorised sites and successfully delivering a live producer registration service for the Deposit Return Scheme.

Flooding

During Quarter 3 there were two significant flood events.

All daily Flood Guidance Statements were issued on time (Measure 6). These highlighted:

• 62 days all Green
• 26 days: Risk elevated to Yellow on at least one of the five days ahead
• 2 days: with Risk elevated to Amber or Red.
• 2 days: Risk elevated to Red on at least one of the 5 days ahead.

A total of 85 regional Flood Alerts and 193 local Flood Warnings (780 messages in total including initial, updates and No Longer In Force) were issued. Our services continue to operate with interim emergency systems, which have performed well over the last Quarter.

Measure 7: ‘Our new flood warning information system is operational’ remains Amber for Quarter 3. A new customer account registration page for Floodline has been designed and signed off, however this needs to be fully tested by the supplier and additional time will be required for acceptance testing, which means this will not be launched until May 2023. The overall measure has an amber status to reflect this delay

During Quarter 3, Measure 8: ‘We have launched the new Carron flood warning scheme’ remains at Amber. We have made good progress but there are still risks remaining. The models are undergoing testing which will be completed at the start of Quarter 4. We have completed work on defining and naming the flood warning areas and aim to launch the scheme by the end of March.

Organisation

We continue to use the Pulse health and wellbeing survey to establish a regular way of finding out how staff are feeling as stated in Measure 9. We are reporting this as Red for Quarter 3. During Quarter 3 we issued two health and wellbeing surveys. The survey results indicated a consistent response across the five survey response categories but a lower response rate than previous surveys (24% in Nov 22 and 26% in Dec 22). The survey issued in November indicated the highest percentage of staff rating their health and wellbeing at the ‘very low’ end of the response scale. The average results for Quarter 3 also indicated that fewer staff are rating their wellbeing as ‘very good’ or ‘good’ compared to previous quarters and the 2021-2022 baseline average.

We are continuing to report Measure 10: ‘Reduction in our direct greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from our 2006-2007 baseline’ as Red indicating no change from Quarter 2. We predict that by the end of 2022-2023 we will have reduced emissions by 56% compared to our baseline. This is well below our 70% target and would also represent a significant rise in emissions (of around 38%) compared to the previous two years.

Performance dashboard

	Performance measure	Rag
Regulation
1	No deterioration in the length of time it takes to determine licences	Green
2	Our plans to review and modify authorisations are on track	Amber
3	We have significantly increased monitoring to improve our understanding of the effect of regulation on the environment	Green
4	An improvement in compliance at prioritised, non-compliant sites	Green
5	We have implemented a registration system to support the Deposit Return Scheme by 1 January 2023	Green
Flooding
6	Warnings and alerts issued for all significant flooding events	Green
7	Our new flood warning information system is operational	Amber
8	We have launched the new Carron flood warning scheme	Amber
Organisation
9	Health and well-being levels among staff have improved from the average levels in 2021-2022 pulse surveys	Red
10	Reduction in our direct greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from our 2006-2007 baseline	Red

This performance report is intended to be informative and easy to follow. We use a RAG traffic light measure status to track if we are on course to achieve measures.

RAG status traffic light codes:

• Green - Achieved or is on course to being achieved.
• Amber - There may be problems or some minor slippage, but solutions have been found to keep the measure on track to being achieved.
• Red - Major issues have been identified and solutions are still being worked on. The measure is likely to be delivered late or not at all.

This report provides a summary of the number of measures Green, Amber and Red noted against the ten Annual Operating Plan Measures for 2022- 2023.

Performance updates

Regulation

Measure 1: No deterioration in the length of time it takes to determine licences

• CLT Lead: Lin Bunten & David Harley
• Green

There has been a continuous improvement in the number of new licences and variations that have been determined compared to the average reported in 2021. This performance has been consistent since March 2022.

There are 47 applications still to be determined that were applied for more than four months ago, including several from before the cyber-attack. We aim to issue as many of these as possible in the final quarter of 2022-2023. This may impact overall performance as these applications will contribute to the percentage being completed outwith the target period.

These applications may have required more information from the applicant and request that they make provision for public consultation and feedback. Where this has been necessary, the response time is paused. However, the statistic that we show here do not take account of this. They only take account of the date received and date issued.

View a graph which includes the issue of permits and variations under the following:

• Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011- Controlled Activity Regulations (CAR)
• Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (PPC 2012) Part A & Part B
• Waste management licences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Waste Management (Scotland) Regulations 2011
• Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations (EASR) for Radioactive substances.

Measure 2: Our plans to review and modify authorisations are on track

• CLT lead: Lin Bunten
• Amber

This measure relates to setting revised controls in authorisations to drive environmental improvements from; industrial activities Best Available Techniques reference documents review (also referred to as BREF); River Basin Management Plan 2021-2027; and our new regulatory framework for marine pen fish farms.

During Quarter 3, we have made progress on key priorities and activities in each area. For in-year reporting, the RAG status of the measure overall reflects any one line being at risk. While seven out of the nine areas are on track, two areas are at risk within ‘Best Available Techniques – Waste Treatment’ and ‘River Basin Management Plan - Discharge reviews’. Because of this, the overall measure is Amber for the Quarter.

Best available techniques reference documents review

We are reporting the status of this work as Amber.

All authorisation reviews for the three activity areas of Intensive Rearing of Poultry and Pigs, Large Volume Organic Chemicals and Large Combustion Plant were completed by the deadline of 31 August 2022. The remaining activity area of Waste Treatment remains a significant challenge. Resource issues have been addressed but the information provided to do the reviews is not complete yet. Ongoing technical and specialist support is also in place and management are working closely with the officers to monitor progress.

While we have started the work to review and vary the permits, it is difficult to accurately quantify progress at this early stage. All but three operators from 55 have responded to their Regulation 63(2) Requirement for Information Notices providing completed gap analysis for their processes. We have identified where there are gaps in the information provided by the operators and will address this over the coming weeks.

We have provided the Scottish Government with an update on this work and we will continue to engage with them.

River Basin Management Plan

We are reporting the status of work in this area as Red. Three out of the four areas for review are either completed or are on target to be by the end of the year. We completed our planned work on Abstraction authorisations. Since the Quarter 2 report, the Hydroelectric authorisations are now back on track. For the Fish Barriers reviews, recruitment took place in September and we plan to complete the remaining work in Quarter 4.

The fourth area target was to vary licences for five key Scottish Water discharges, based on the standard process. We have completed the necessary work to vary the licences. In October, Scottish Water applied for a “disproportionate cost” exemption at each discharge. This additional unplanned work will not be complete by April 2023.

Marine pen fish farms reviews

We are reporting the status of this work as Green.

We have continued to update and refine the permit template and the latest version was finalised in December 2022. We have advised all operators on how to apply to vary sites onto the new permit template.

Internally, we have set up the necessary arrangements to manage the process. In December, we received the first set of applications covering all the sites operated by one finfish producer. We expect to issue draft new permits for these sites in Quarter 4. Three other producers have provided the information necessary to start the application process.

Reviews & Overall Status	Activity	RAG Status	Actions/update
Best Available Techniques Reference Documents Review	Intensive rearing of poultry or pigs	Green	Completed 31 August 2022
	Large volume organic chemicals	Green	Completed 31 August 2022
	Large combustion plants	Green	Completed 31 August 2022
	Waste treatment	Amber	Much of the background work is complete. We developed a plan which identifies the most efficient approach and resourcing for the wide range of activity and process types covered in this area. Data supplied and reviewed for 52/55 licence holders but gaps in data supplied
River Basin Management Plan	Hydroelectric licences	Green	On track to deliver
	Fish barriers	Green	On track to deliver
	Discharge authorisations	Amber	As explained above, the additional unplanned work will not be complete by end of March 2023.
	Scottish Water abstraction authorisations	Green	Complete
Marine pen fish farms	Marine pen fish farms	Green	We have provided all marine farm operators with an opportunity to commence the application process to transfer onto the new permit template. At the end of Quarter 3, 4 producers had begun the process. The others have all been contacted and we are awaiting responses.

Measure 3: We have significantly increased monitoring to improve our understanding of the effect of regulation on the environment

• CLT lead: David Pirie
• Green

In Quarter 3, we continued to implement our plans to increase our monitoring activities and made steady progress in most areas. Although monitoring remains lower than pre-COVID levels, we have progressed with implementing targeted monitoring, prioritised to support regulation.

Our increases in environmental monitoring have been balanced by the need to increase our monitoring efforts of licensed discharges to surface waters as part of our compliance verification work. The implementation of some aspects of our surface water and groundwater chemical monitoring programmes are slower than expected without a fully integrated laboratory management system

• Bathing Waters: The Bathing Waters monitoring programme was successfully completed. Three additional beaches were added this year and we increased the sampling frequency and associated sites in the upstream catchment. Bathing water classification has been completed.
• Long-term water quality monitoring: Spring and autumn sampling for ecology has been completed as planned. Chemistry sampling is in progress at a subset of sites. Action has been taken to ensure we translate the monitoring requirements into our National Monitoring Plan which, in turn, should enable the implementation of the long-term water quality monitoring programme before March 2023.
• Monitoring to assess the effectiveness of River Basin Management Planning improvement measures: Ecology spring, summer and autumn sampling has been undertaken as planned. Chemistry monitoring is making good progress despite challenges with scheduling and the use of the interim lab management system.
• Monitoring to assess the environmental impact of high priority wastewater treatment sites: We have instigated a monitoring plan at 15 high-risk wastewater treatment sites and have identified suitable sampling sites at these. Spring, summer and autumn ecology monitoring has been completed as planned.

Measure 4: An improvement in compliance at prioritised, non-compliant sites

• CLT lead: Lin Bunten and David Harley
• Green

Our aim is to bring about improvements in compliance in both unauthorised (or illegal) and authorised sites from the baseline number of priority sites established at the start of the year. Priority sites are selected on their potential for impact on the environment and communities.

Improving compliance at high priority unauthorised sites (Illegal)

We started the year with 53 prioritised sites operating without an authorisation (Illegal sites). In Quarter 3, we completed enforcement action at two of these sites, including one which then needed no further action and one which has been reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

As of Quarter 3, there is enforcement action reported at nine sites. Action taken included provision of advice, remediation without enforcement, partnership working with the Local Authority’s Planning Department and a report to the COPFS.

At the end of Quarter 3, action to tackle 38 priority sites is continuing, while two are paused. One site is paused to focus resource on the affiliated site where a report to the COPFS was submitted, and the second site is paused due to other priorities within the local team. The ongoing investigations include the coordinated treatment and deposit of waste on a large scale over Glasgow and the surrounding area; discharge to the water environment; and multiple end of life vehicle treatment sites.

During this Quarter, we identified no additional illegal sites. The total of sites added since April is 12, one has been addressed leaving 11 in progress at the end of Quarter 3.

	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Number of Priority Illegal sites at start of month	53	48	48	47	46	46	45	44	44
Closed each month	5	0	1*	0	0	1	1	0	1
Number of Priority Illegal sites in progress at end of the month	48	48	47	46**	46	45	44	44	42***
No. Priority Illegal sites added from 1 April *
New Sites added during the month	2	5	4	1	0	0	0	0	0
Closed each month	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Number of Priority Illegal sites in progress at end of the month	2	7	10	11	11	11	11	11	11

‘*’ Changes made after reporting period:

*One site has been added into Q1 closed data in Q3 due to a delay in team reporting completion of enforcement.

**One site had mistakenly been put in as High priority

*** One site closed and one site was downgraded from Priority after discussions with local team after initial investigations took place.

The site prioritisation list tracks the progress of unauthorised sites (illegal activity) which requires a more formal or protracted investigation with those noted above being the most significant. In Quarter 3, we also received 502 environmental event notifications, 308 of these related to illegal activity, 253 of which were investigated and appropriate action taken. One of the environmental events related to an existing illegal site on the prioritisation sheet and one site was added but with lower priority than those reported here.

Improving compliance at our priority authorised sites

We continue to undertake a programme of compliance verification activity to identify and prioritise non-compliant sites, alongside requiring improvement actions from operators to enable the recovery of compliance.

We prioritise and report on sites where non-compliance with licence conditions results in a higher environmental and/or community impact, or higher risk of environmental and community impact.

At the start of Quarter 3, we had identified 21 priority sites. A further ten priority sites were identified over the reporting period. Action taken in relation to six sites during the reporting period has resulted in the risk and/or impact being reduced.

At the end of December 2022, 25 sites have been prioritised for action. These sites are from a range of sectors including landfill and waste management, waste-water treatment, and chemical manufacturing. Our action will reduce impacts to water quality, including designated bathing beaches, and protect communities from odour and noise nuisance.

Priority authorised sites baseline	Q2	Q3
Priority sites at start of reporting period	15	21*
Priority sites added during the reporting period	8	10
Sites de-prioritised / resolved during the reporting period	3	6
Priority sites at end of the reporting period	20	25

Measure 5: We have implemented a registration system to support the Deposit Return Scheme by 1 January 2023

• CLT lead: David Harley
• Green

We have delivered this objective. The digital services for producers wishing to register directly with SEPA or through the Scheme Administrator are now live. We also have a contingency paper-based registration service which supports equality and accessibility considerations and ensures business continuity measures are in place. Work to publish a producer register will take place in Quarter 4.

Guidance to support producer registration has been published on our website. This includes helping producers determine whether their drinks are in the scope of the scheme, routes to register, and how to write an operational plan if they choose to register directly with us. A targeted Communications campaign encouraging producers to act now is underway.

The guidance is available on the updated Producer page and a new Producer registration page of our website, links within our Frequently Asked Questions document, and in the new Deposit Return Scheme section of the Waste guidance web page. The links are as follows:

• Producers | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
• Producer registration | Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
• DRS guidance: Scheme articles, non-scheme articles and non-Scottish articles (sepa.org.uk)
• DRS guidance: Operational plan - guidance for producers (sepa.org.uk)
• We aim to have the Producer Register available on our website in Quarter 1 of 2023-2024.

Digital milestones met up to this quarter:

Milestone	Discovery	Alpha	Beta	Live
Direct Registration Service Review	Complete	Complete	Complete	Complete
Scheme Administrator Bulk Producer Registration Service	Complete	Complete	Complete	Complete
Search the Deposit Return Scheme Producer Register Service	Complete	Complete	Started

Flooding

Measure 6: Warnings and alerts issued for all significant flooding events

• CLT lead: David Pirie
• Green

There were two significant flood events during the third quarter.

All daily Flood Guidance Statements were issued on time. These highlighted:

• 62 days all Green
• 26 days: Risk elevated to Yellow on at least one of the 5 days ahead
• 2 days: Risk elevated to Amber on at least one of the 5 days ahead
• 2 days: Risk elevated to Red on at least one of the 5 days ahead.

A total of 85 regional Flood Alerts and 193 local Flood Warnings and 8 local Severe Flood Warnings (780 messages in total including initial, updates and ‘No Longer In Force’) have been issued during this Quarter due to very unsettled weather during November and at the end of December in particular.

The East of Scotland was affected by severe flooding on 18 and 19 November due to a period of heavy and persistent rainfall over a 48-hour period. In the North-East, the event was the most severe flood since Storm Frank in December 2015 with record river flows along the River Dee and the River Don in Aberdeenshire and the South Esk in Angus.

There were also impacts on communities and the transport network across the Lothian, Fife, Tayside, Aberdeenshire and Angus. This unfortunately included a tragic incident reported along the River Don. The risk was elevated to Red in Aberdeenshire and 7 Severe Flood Warnings were issued on 18 November.

Ballater Community Council told us that the flood warning service is invaluable and the timings and messaging during this event were reflective of what was experienced on the ground.

The community acted on receipt of the flood warnings and were prepared. Across the North-East, we received reports of a number of properties that suffered flooding including around 6 properties in Ballater and 10 properties in Kintore where we had issued severe flood warnings.

A second significant event was experienced on 30 December affecting South and Central Scotland, with the risk elevated to Red along the River Nith and a Severe Flood Warning issued in Whitesands in Dumfries. The River Nith reached its highest level over a 40-year period of record and widespread flooding impacts on communities and the transport network were experienced.

Our services continue to operate with interim emergency systems, which have performed well over the last Quarter. We continue to rebuild long term resilient telemetry, hydrometry archive and flood forecasting systems. However, we had to cancel the procurement for a new 10-year contract for Next Generation Telemetry Service following the unsatisfactory responses received. Developing an alternative strategy will be part of our business priorities for 2023-2024. A lessons learnt exercise is being organised and an alternative strategy will be developed.

In the meantime, we are extending the lifespan and reinforcing the resilience of our current systems which would have been replaced by the Next Generation Telemetry System, so services are maintained

Throughout the period, we have been liaising closely with the Scottish Government resilience team and have contributed to their regular Scotland’s winter preparedness meetings.

Measure 7: Our new flood warning information system is operational

• CLT lead: David Pirie
• Amber

We are working to ensure that our new flood warning information system is operational by 31 March 2023. The planning target was set for this date to ensure any replacement service would be operational by then to ensure continuity of our Floodline and associated services when the existing contract with BT ended. Following a tendering process, the new contract was awarded to BT, there will be no disruption to the service.

The contract is complex. Overall, the project is making excellent progress. We will be delivering new features such as the integration to our ‘SEPAFlood’ Twitter channel in the coming weeks and will begin testing other features in February prior to a release for SEPA in March. The recent Technology Assurance Framework health check stating positive feedback for a project of this scope.

A small number of features, such as the new customer registration pages, we do not expect to launch until May. The delay is in part to ensure that the new pages have been fully tested by the supplier and allow for sufficient time for our acceptance testing. We have also been working with the Scottish Government on the Scottish Digital Service Standard and we are proposing to carry out accessibility testing and review on these pages. This can only take place once the pages are live.

Measure 8: We have launched the new Carron flood warning scheme

• CLT lead: David Pirie
• Amber

The project status remains at Amber for the Carron Project. We have made good progress, but there are still some significant risks remaining.

These risks include the workload of key staff and technical resources who are involved in both this and the Future Flood and Incident Messaging Service (see Measure 7 above) as well as the long term rebuild of the Flood Early Warning System (FEWS). We are working together between the projects to minimize the impact of this.

The risks caused by the above projects dependencies on the Carron flood warning scheme have been addressed by planning to integrate the scheme into FEWS and the existing Flood Warning Direct system before March, meaning the Carron will be available to customers within the planned timescale.

In Quarter 3, we completed work on internal and external consultation to name and agree the boundaries of the new flood warning areas. Falkirk Council was updated on the project, and we held discussions on joint communications going forward.

We have supplied data for end-to-end and performance testing to our consultants. We have also undertaken the technical work to test the model in our Flood Early Warning System. End-to-end testing will be completed at the start of Quarter 4.

The timescales remain tight but we expect to achieve this work and launch the scheme by the end of March.

Organisation

Measure 9: Health and wellbeing levels among staff have improved from the average levels in 2021-2022 pulse surveys

• CLT lead: Jennifer Russell
• Red

During Quarter 3, we conducted two wellbeing pulse surveys. The results for these surveys are shown in this table.

The table shows the total number of responses for each survey and the percentage of total respondents who rated themselves at each wellbeing level. While the wellbeing ratings are consistent with those of previous pulse surveys, the Quarter 3 surveys had the lowest number of respondents at 24% and 26% respectively. The reduced proportion of staff responding in this Quarter makes it difficult to determine if the responses are reflective of wellbeing levels across the whole organisation.

The average of the two surveys, forming the overall result for Quarter 3. This is compared to the average for Quarters 1 and 2 as well as the baseline average result of the wellbeing surveys conducted in the 2021-2022 period.

The average results for Quarter 3 indicate that the percentage of respondents rating their wellbeing as ‘very good’ or ‘good’ is lower than both the previous quarters and the 2021-2022 baseline average. The results also indicate an increase in the percentage of respondents rating their wellbeing at the lower end.

The table shows the average number of respondents, per quarter, across each of the wellbeing levels.

Both tables reflect that, in Quarter 3, the proportion of respondents rating at the ‘very good’ or ‘good’ level has decreased compared to the previous periods. The table above shows a smaller number of respondents at the ‘low’ or ‘very low’ levels than in previous surveys.

Overall, the proportion of staff who rate their wellbeing as good has declined and the proportion who rate their wellbeing as low has increased, when compared to previous surveys. The pulse surveys for Quarter 4 are anticipated to follow this trend despite a range of actions that are ongoing to help support wellbeing. It is therefore considered that the status for this measure is red because the overall 2022-2023 average results will not have improved compared to the 2021-2022 baseline.

The pulse surveys are helpful in providing an indicator of how individuals are feeling in the moment that they respond to the survey. There are a range of factors that impact on someone’s wellbeing some of which may not be directly related to work matters or within SEPA’s sphere of influence.

It was recognised that it is important to try to understand more about some of the underlying factors which may be impacting on staff wellbeing and in December 2022 two additional questions were asked to help provide insight. Staff were asked about how much they could attribute the way they were feeling to work matters. They were also asked to rank a range of factors in order, with the factor that was most impacting them ranked first.

The responses to these additional questions indicate that it is not solely work-related matters which are impacting staff, with cost-of-living concerns and non-work-related matters being the main factors for some. Key actions planned for Q4 which relate to wellbeing include: the procurement of further Developing Personal Resilience training sessions; progressing settlement of Pay Offer 2022-2023; launch of the new Employee Assistance Provider service which will enable staff to access an increased range of support; the reintroduction of some checks and balances around working time to support fairness, equity and wellbeing; and a further pulse survey.

Measure 10: Reduction in our direct greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from our 2006-2007 baseline

• CLT lead: Bridget Marshall
• Red

Our total greenhouse gas emissions in 2006-2007 were 3,614tCO2e. To meet a 70% reduction in direct greenhouse gas emissions, we will need to emit 1,084tCO2e or less over the course of 2022-2023. This means on average our target emissions per quarter is 271tCO2e. This report is for Quarters 1 and 2, providing information about buildings and travel emissions to 30 September 2022.

Emissions (tCO2e)
	Quarter 2 2022-2023				Quarter 1	Total to end of Quarter 2
Emission source:	2022-2023
	July	Aug	Sep	Quarter 2 total
Buildings
Electricity use	45.21	44.68	39.91	129.80	136.80	266.60
Gas use	7.22	7.38	8.41	23.01	30.15	53.16
Oil use	0.21	0.21	0.21	0.64	1.43	2.06
Working from home (estimate)	30.0	30.0	30.0	60.0	78.92	168.92
Total buildings				243.05
SEPA Travel
Fleet vehicles	11.07	16.00	11.10	38.17	30.64	68.80
Hire cars	0.98	0.01	1.31	2.30	9.95	12.24
BCM (private car for work) miles	24.93	19.30	21.56	65.79	58.4	124.16
Flights	0.19	0.35	1.18	1.72	12.9	14.61
Ferries	0.01	-	0.07	0.08	0.022	0.10
Rail travel	0.33	0.64	1.11	2.08	2.10	4.18
Sir John Murray fuel use	7.41	7.41	7.41	22.24	54.49	76.73
Total travel				132.38
Total Quarter 2 emissions (Target was 271.05)				368.85
Total Quarter 1 emissions (Target was 271.05)					419.99
2022-2023 emissions so far (Target was 542.1)						791.56

This measure is Red as the data indicates that if the trends from Quarters 1 and 2 are replicated across the year we will not achieve our target.

Based on Quarter 1 and 2 trends, we predict that by the end of 2022-2023 we will have reduced emissions by 56% compared to our baseline. This is well below our 70% target and would represent a significant rise in emissions, of around 38%, compared to the previous two years. There are three primary reasons for this:

1. Although more offices were fully re-opened in Quarter 2, most staff continue to work from home (estimated at 91%). This means we now have two significant sources of buildings emissions where previously we only had one.
2. Despite significant levels of home and digital working, our travel emissions have returned to more than two thirds of pre-pandemic levels. These emissions are particularly associated with our more carbon intense travel options, including flights and private vehic le use, which are back to 67% and 73% of pre-pandemic levels respectively. Only emissions from rail and ferry travel show a sustained fall.
3. Emissions from the Sir John Murray have increased compared to the previous two years when boat surveys were disrupted by COVID.

As more offices fully re-open and, if travel continues to increase, it is likely that Quarter 3 data will continue to move away from our 70% target. As we move from summer to winter in the second half of the year, we can also expect buildings emissions to increase.

If homeworking emissions are excluded to allow a like-for-like comparison with our baseline, we estimate we would reduce emissions by 65%. This is still short of target.

However, given the very high levels of homeworking we are committed to include homeworking emissions in our inventory and these are now a mandatory part of our emissions reporting to the Scottish Government.

We have already taken some actions which will reduce our emissions including:

• Reintroduction of our travel hierarchy with an emphasis on digital first.
• Reinstatement of a requirement for CLT approval for all flights.
• Closing all offices between Christmas and New Year.

However, these actions will not be sufficient to ensure we meet our target. Further actions that may be possible to reduce emissions in Quarter 4 include:

• Expecting managers to be firmer with teams about application of the travel hierarchy. Particularly around the need to travel at all and, when travel is required, the use of private vehicles.
• Taking opportunities to reduce emissions as part of the estate review.

However, we remain unlikely to meet our Annual Operating Plan target this year. Longer term, our Future of Work project aims to create smaller, more flexible, low emissions workspaces that are designed for hybrid working patterns and this will play a significant role in reducing our emissions.