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Chief Executive’s Report

Summary

Agency Board Report Number: SEPA 36/23 - July 2023

This paper provides the Board with important updates on significant issues affecting the operating environment of SEPA, highlighting areas of environmental achievement and concern, enforcement action and major partnership activities, as well as business related issues in respect of corporate performance and activity since the last Board meeting on 30 May 2023.

Introduction

As this period comes to a close and our people take a well-deserved break, I am keen to reflect on some of the successes achieved in this first quarter of the financial year. We celebrate the publication of our Annual Operating Plan for 2023/24, a bridging document from the old Corporate Plan to the new, showcasing our new logo and branding. It is a concise, outcome focused document to focus our minds and work across the year.

Development of the new Corporate Plan continues at pace with a multitude of themes already discussed by the Board and the Agency’s Strategic Leadership Team (SLT). Meetings of the SLT and All Managers of the Agency have now become a quarterly fixture, enabling us to take steps towards wider strategic leadership of the organisation and co-production of major strategies at SLT. It also provides the opportunity for Managers to step forward to share projects they are proud of and opportunities across the Agency, together with the sharing of key updates from the SLT.

SEPA is delivering for Scotland, illustrated in the publication of our Annual Performance Report for 2022/23, achieving eight out of ten measures. Delivery is characterised by quicker licence determination, a significant increase in monitoring activities, improved compliance at 21 prioritised non-compliant sites, and concluded investigation and enforcement action at 11 priority illegal sites. Our new flood warning information system is also operational, and we issued warnings and alerts for all significant flooding events.

Delivery of Protect Adapt Improve – Our Approach to Regulation, to complement the developing Corporate Plan nears completion. It will form the basis of our strive for innovation in sectors, ensuring that compliance is the minimum viable option and the aspiration in each sector is for more, much more.

The Future of Work Programme also continues development and reached a milestone in preparedness for our move to Waverly Court in Edinburgh. Further development of the strategic approach to our workspaces will be presented to the Board in due course.

Our people have been challenged as our climate has shifted towards water scarcity and flooding events in the last 6 weeks, as Scotland experienced its earliest and most widespread scarcity challenges yet. I am proud to say our teams have risen to the challenge keeping Ministers, stakeholders, businesses and the public informed, and will continue to monitor, act and advise across the summer period, together with providing advice to businesses in improving their future resilience against climate change.

As Chief Executive, I have continued key stakeholder engagement, including political engagement, across the last 2 months and enjoyed further opportunities to meet our people and gain further insight into their roles and indeed help them celebrate their delivery for Scotland.

Against significant challenges this year, I am delighted to present examples of SEPA’s environmental achievements, enforcement action and partnership activities since the last Board meeting on the 30 of May 2023. Over the last period, I would particularly highlight issuing our first ever civil penalty under the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015, the launch of the consultation of the Sea Lice Risk Assessment Framework and setting out of our plan for development of our new Performance Assessment Scheme, all integral to our protection of Scotland’s Environment.

Regulation

Restoring the River Leven (CLT Lead: Bridget Marshall)

The Leven Programme partnership vision is centred around improving people’s access to the river Leven and returning it to a valued asset for all. The Water Environment Fund (WEF) funded Restoring the River Leven project plays a vital part in achieving this by improving the condition of the river for climate resilience, natural habitats, migratory fish and local communities’ health and wellbeing.

This summer, the project will move into its delivery phase, using a collaborative approach across the Leven Programme partners including SEPA, Fife Council, Network Rail and led by Fife Coast & Countryside Trust.

In advance of this, the project has strived to deliver multiple outcomes by re-engaging local people’s connection to, and stewardship of, their natural environment. This caught the attention of BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Out of Doors’ programme, resulting in a broadcast by the river Leven with local primary children. Listen to the BBC Sounds episode titled ‘Hedgehogs, Badgers and Hay Fever’, with a range of stories about nature from across Scotland. You can also skip ahead to 01:15:12 for the segment on Restoring the River Leven, featuring SEPA’s River Restoration Specialist Lynda Gairns.

Water Environment Fund (WEF) (CLT Lead: David Harley)

On 30 of May 2023 the SEPA Board and CLT visited the Garrell Burn and Dumbreck Marsh restoration site. The project has re-naturalised part of the Garrell Burn at Kilsyth, re-connected the marsh to its flood plain, restored access for migratory wild fish and provided new and improved public access routes. The work was completed in 2022 in partnership with North Lanarkshire Council and was funded by WEF, Scottish Government & the Council. The group toured the riverside from its urban fringe down toward the open marsh. It was also an opportunity for local primary school children to show the Board drawings of their improved blue-green space and say a little about what they value about it. WEF would like to thank the Board and CLT for making the journey to one of our successfully completed projects.

Carbon Reduction, Energy and Industry (CLT Lead: David Harley)

SEPA recently issued its first ever civil penalty under the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015. DSM Nutritional Products (UK) Limited have had to pay £75,000 after failing to have a leak-detection system for these powerful greenhouse gases in breach of those Regulations. The business in Dalry, Ayrshire operates equipment which uses F-gases, and the company must submit data to SEPA every year under the Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI). In 2020, the emissions reported (898.20kg) were over eight times the reporting threshold, considerably higher than previous years and were flagged by SPRI as being in the top three highest emitters for Scotland.

SEPA has recently undertaken a programme of awareness raising in relation to F-Gases by attending local authority meetings with Environmental Health Officers, and working with NETREGS to ensure up-to-date information is available on the website. There has also been SEPA social media engagement and development of a communications strategy to target specific industry sectors (mainly dairy processing and manufacture, food and drink, waste, and commercial buildings.

Radioactive Substances (CLT Lead: David Harley)

SEPA staff joined an international team of experts to undertake a review of the Netherland’s compliance with International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) International Basic Safety Standards in June. The IAEA missions are to assess each country against the international requirements and to identify areas of improvement. More information is available in the press release.

Clean Air Day (CLT Lead: David Harley)

The 15 of June was Clean Air Day and SEPA has been working to highlight the impacts of air pollution to future generations and the impacts of the Low Emission Zones (LEZ) in our cities. SEPA worked with the Glasgow Science Centre to develop learning materials to teach P5 - P7 pupils about the need for clean air and this was profiled in national news. SEPA also met with the Glasgow Science Centre and Scottish Government in June to discuss future opportunities for public engagement and development of learning materials as part of the Clean Air for Scotland 2 Strategy (CAFS2).

Water Scarcity (CLT Lead: David Harley / Lin Bunten)

Water scarcity has affected all of Scotland, from Shetland to the Borders. It is a complex and rapidly changing picture, but at the time of writing (21 of June), unless there is sustained above- average rainfall, significant numbers of abstraction licences may have to be suspended, or have their licenced volumes significantly reduced, by the end of July. Continued dry weather increases the risk of further suspensions.

The most current situation is shown in the water scarcity report and on the Drought Risk Assessment Tool, which shows gauging stations counting-down to the point at which we may suspend licences. An Emergency Management Team has been stood-up to oversee the response and ensure adequate resourcing, with staff across SEPA working hard to monitor the situation, contact abstractors, minimise impacts on the environment and on businesses and prepare for on the ground compliance work.

We have been liaising closely with Scottish Government, Ministers, affected businesses and Scottish Water to manage a changeable situation. There has been considerable communication activity (both planned and reactive).

Water Scarcity Tool Development (CLT Lead: David Pirie)

We have recently developed a range of tools for the Emergency Management Team that is overseeing SEPA’s work on water scarcity. This has made use of the MS365 tools which we now have available. An information hub has been created using a combination of SharePoint and Power BI which dynamically brings together all the key information needed to support the work. We have also created a canvas power app that allow us to capture and manage the information on our engagement with farmers.

Enforcement – Industrial Scale Fly Tipping (CLT Lead: Lin Bunten)

In Scotland, and throughout the UK, ‘waste criminals’ are increasingly targeting vacant commercial premises, including warehouses, for fly tipping on an industrial scale. Zero Waste Scotland state that there are over 60,000 incidents of fly tipping reported each year in Scotland, costing over £8.9 million of public money to clear up.

The most recent large-scale fly tipping incident occurred in Glasgow in May 2023. The building was also targeted by arsonists, creating a fire that required the attendance of 16 fire appliances, and caused severe disruption to traffic and adjacent residential properties. Read the Glasgow Times news report..

In addition to a joint response to the initial incident, and subsequent investigations by SEPA and Police Scotland into responsibility for the incident, SEPA has taken the opportunity to highlight our interventions approach to identify and tackle the increase in these types of activities to local partner agencies and other sectors, including commercial letting agencies. It also shows the potential impacts of not carrying out suitable due diligence checks or maintaining appropriate security on vacant warehouses and how to highlight concerns.

Performance Assessment Scheme (CLT Lead: Lin Bunten)

Publicly accessible compliance information is important for all stakeholders, including authorisation holders, particularly those that trade on their good environmental performance. SEPA is developing a new approach to compliance assessment, the Performance Assessment Scheme. It will replace the Compliance Assessment Scheme that operated until the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020.

The objective is to promote high levels of compliance and to encourage authorisation holders to remedy non-compliance as quickly and as effectively as possible. Our proposals will build on the views gathered from stakeholders when we consulted in 2015 and 2017.

During May, we began early engagement on our proposals with key sectors and stakeholders in order to test our early thinking and will build towards a consultation in spring/ summer 2024.

Enforcement (CLT Lead: Lin Bunten / David Harley)

SEPA staff met with members of the Scottish Environmental Services Association (SESA) on 13 June 2023 at FCC Environment’s energy recovery facility at Millerhill, Edinburgh.

They discussed activity to tackle environmental crime in the waste sector, and upcoming waste policy and legislation changes, such as:

• the Integrated Authorisation Framework;
• Digital Waste Tracking; and
• requirements for managing waste containing Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs); a group of man-made chemicals which remain intact in the environment for a long time, and bio-accumulate in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife. They are often referred to as “forever chemicals”.

SEPA values the opportunity for discussions with industry on pressing issues affecting the sector. Industry insight, intelligence and support is a vital part of helping us achieve our AOP target on “Tackling environmental crime”.

Enforcement (CLT Lead: Lin Bunten)

SEPA staff attended, with partners Police Scotland, at various road stops on four occasions across May and June 2023, including the Lanarkshire and Greater Glasgow areas. Advice and guidance was given to those stopped as part of the exercise and enforcement action is ongoing for waste being carried without appropriate authorisation.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) (CLT Lead: David Pirie)

AMR presents a significant threat to human and animal health, food security, economic development, and equity. The environment plays an important role in the spread of AMR and this has implications for plant, animal and human health that can best be addressed through a One Health approach that takes account of the many interactions between them.

The UK has a 20-year vision for AMR that sets out how it will contribute to containing and controlling AMR by 2040. This is supported by the UK AMR Action Plan 2019-2024 (NAP). The NAP focuses on antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in bacteria and its environmental commitments aim to:

• support research to improve understanding of hazards and risks from AMR in the environment;
• gather evidence on risks to inform policy options and raise public awareness;
• maintain legislation to control the release of harmful substances to aquatic environments which might otherwise contribute to spread of AMR; and
• establish a river catchment-based approach to AMR surveillance to inform policy and interventions.

SEPA is working with Scottish Government and is contributing to Scotland’s work for the NAP through various one health groups, in the testing of antibiotic resistance in E. coli bacteria in bathing water samples and in contributing towards eco-directed pharmaceuticals stewardship through the One Health Breakthrough Partnership.

SEPA is also contributing to the development of the next UK AMR action plan that will run from 2024 to 2029. It is encouraging to see that its scope will include environmental surveillance and mitigation of a broad range of antimicrobials (not just antibiotics) and AMR driving substances in air, water, and land environments.

Sea-Lice Framework Consultation (CLT Lead: David Pirie)

SEPA issued its consultation on the Sea-Lice Framework on 31 of May following an extensive period of development. We had good coverage by the BBC. This consultation provides our detailed proposals for how the regulation of sea lice will work. We have now run three cross- stakeholder group meetings providing an opportunity for detailed questions of our proposals. These meetings have gone well with good representation from the various interest groups and useful debate and challenge. We have also completed three workshops with the wide range of policy interests with Scottish Government which have been very well received. Over the summer we are planning more focused engagement sessions. The consultation closes on 15 of September.

Flooding

Network Rail operations (CLT Lead: David Pirie)

As part of ongoing engagement, SEPA’s flood warning team met with Network Rail’s Glasgow-based weather team for a knowledge-sharing visit. The purpose was to better understand each organisation’s operational requirements, services offered and explore potential collaboration.

Surface water forecasting, high flow impacts on railway bridge infrastructure and gauging plans were discussed, and it was reassuring to discover how Network Rail has used SEPA rain gauge information for operational purposes.

For instance their Route Control Manager imposes speed restrictions or line closures when there is excessive rainfall over measured periods, and SEPA’s data has been used actively to aid that public safety purpose, e.g. December 2022 at Thankerton.

Scottish Government Resilience Room Visit (CLT Lead: David Pirie)

To strengthen operational working, we hosted a team visit from Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) officials at our Perth office.

The principal aim was to gain a better understanding of roles, responsibilities, and ways of working, so that future joint working and communication could be improved during flooding incidents and at peace time. This included demonstrations of forecasting, the production of SEPA’s daily Flood Guidance Statement and Scottish Flood Forecast, and the background work and processes involved in the issue of local Flood Warnings and regional Flood Alerts.

The work with SGoRR forms a crucial strand of our ongoing work to improve the flood warning service. It will help partners understand SEPA’s role relative to others during significant flood events. This will, in turn, both produce a more effective response for Scotland, and will reduce stress on SEPA staff by reducing the potential, during a crisis, for staff to be asked to provide roles beyond SEPA’s remit. This strand is interwoven with other strands to improve the information available at short notice on climate change and flood defences, improve the resilience of real time data systems, and improve the strength in depth of staffing for our operational flood warning service. Taken together, all these strands will improve the long-term resilience and sustainability of the SEPA flood warning service, which is vital to help save lives and livelihoods in Scotland’s communities.

EMERGE Project - Extreme Natural Hazards in Remote Northern Europe (CLT Lead: David Pirie)

SEPA has been an active participant in the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)-funded EMERGE Project, which has brought together scientists, researchers and early warning specialists from across Iceland, Norway and Scotland.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office (Veðurstofa Íslands) hosted the final project event during May 2023 and topics of discussion and shared knowledge included:

• Iceland’s use of World Meteorological Office Common Alerting Protocol standards;
• whether risks are worse in remote regions given the lack of monitoring;
• how to warn of immediate hazards with a transient population – e.g. how this links to recent Emergency Alerts trial in the UK;
• communicating uncertainty and low confidence events.

The EMERGE Project has developed successful collaboration and sharing of ideas and is unique in focusing on remote regions and multiple hazards. There will be more to follow from the project, including a planned publication around project learning, containing warning communication where at-risk customers have differing appetites for information and dealing with compound events.

Recent flood event (CLT Lead: David Pirie)

On Monday 12 of June 2023, heavy rainfall and thunderstorms affected the Great Glen area resulting in some severe impacts on the transport network and a very sudden rise of water levels across some catchments in the region.

A landslide and travel disruption on the A86 and along the railway network were reported, along with agricultural impacts.

The daily Flood Guidance Statement and Scottish Flood Forecast highlighted the risk (yellow) for the period from Sunday, and regional Flood Alerts were in force. One of our river gauges, along the river Tarff at Archady Bridge near Fort Augustus, recorded a remarkable rise of 2.4m in 15 mins and 3m in 30 mins, highlighting the intense and sudden nature of the thunderstorm over that small catchment (76km2). The hydrograph below also shows the rapid return to very low flow conditions less than 24 hours after the storm, which is not really changing the water scarcity situation.

Organisation

One SEPA Modernisation (CLT Lead: Angela Milloy)

The programmes and projects under One SEPA modernisation continue to be developed. An overall high-level programme with timelines is in preparation, with the aim of understanding how we repurpose our existing resources as well as long-term financial requirements and phasing over the years ahead.

Financial Reporting (CLT Lead: Angela Milloy)

As public sector finances continue to be challenging, SEPA is also gearing up for increased reporting to Scottish Government’s new and ambitious target of a 3% tolerance on monthly variances up to November in the reporting calendar and 1% variance thereafter. In addition, there are also requests to provide full commitment reporting, which still need to be worked through to split spend out as to whether commitments relate to 45% Grant in Aid funded, or 55% External Charging funded. Both sets of requirements will take time to implement as well as rolling out the training required across SEPA to meet these increased reporting needs.

Future of Work (CLT Lead: Jennifer Russell)

There has been great collaboration work across the organisation in relation to exiting our Glenrothes and Edinburgh offices, in addition to preparation for entry to the new Regional Hub at Waverley Court, Edinburgh, which SEPA we shall share with the City of Edinburgh Council. This includes liaising with Unison and providing support to staff.