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Chief Executive’s Report

Summary

Agency board report number: SEPA 01/24 - February 2024

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 28 November 2023.

Introduction

As we enter a new year, significant progress has been made on our reset of the Agency including both structural and leadership changes.

With Scotland’s environmental, economic and social prosperity so prominently in focus, I am delighted to welcome our new Chair, Lisa Tennant, and our six new Board members, Dr Carol Evans, David Hunter, Lindsay MacDonald, Lorraine McMillan, Dr Sue Paterson and Keith Rosser to SEPA, and to their first SEPA Agency Board meeting.

The expertise and fresh perspectives brought by the new Chair and members will undoubtedly enrich our discussions and decisions, enhancing SEPA’s ability to find innovative solutions to protect and improve Scotland’s environment. Completing our board recruitment process is an important milestone in our organisational reset, as we now look to finalise our emerging Corporate Plan and accelerate the delivery of our key services.

Lisa will build on the significant contribution made by our outgoing Chair Bob Downes, who I would like to thank for his tremendous work to both SEPA and Scotland’s environment across his seventeen years on the Agency Board. I would also like to thank Bob personally, and the Board members who have left at the end of their term, for their support during my first 14 months at SEPA.

Kirsty-Louise Campbell joined us from Police Scotland in January to take up the key Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) role of Chief Officer: Governance, Performance and Engagement. She brings a great deal of experience in shaping governance teams, corporate communications and change management. Further strengthening the CLT, Angela Milloy has successfully been appointed to Chief Officer: Finance, Digital and Modernisation position within the new CLT structure. Recruitment of the final two Chief Operating Officers is well underway.

To support our Corporate Plan and key deliverables, further scoping and reshaping of teams will continue in the coming months. Leaders and managers from across the organisation will be able to discuss opportunities and make changes where and when required.

Within the development of our People Strategy, a project to refresh and embed our values is taking shape. Employees from across the organisation are involved in its development, with opportunities to share feedback, celebrate our culture and communicate what makes SEPA a great place to work.

Our two year pay offer for the period from the 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2025 was accepted overwhelmingly by Trade Union members (81%). Designed to offer more certainty, the two-year offer includes increases to both pay and non-pay benefits, with SEPA as an employer now offering one of the highest leave entitlements of all public bodies from 2025.

It’s an exciting time for our agency, our people and partners as we continue moving forward to make a real difference for Scotland.

Operationally, we have delivered for Scotland across a range of environmental areas, but two stand out in particular within the marine and waste environments.

SEPA is the lead body responsible for managing the particular risk to wild salmon and sea trout posed by sea lice. Teams have over the past few years developed a proportionate, evidence based regulatory approach to protect young salmon from the parasite. Development, consultation and now implementation of the new regulatory framework for protecting the environment and wild salmon is underway from 1 February 2024. Sea trout will follow from Spring 2025.

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands Mairi Gougeon said: “Salmon is one of Scotland’s most iconic species and I am grateful for SEPA’s support in developing this framework”.

We also investigated waste offences stretching over two and a half years at a site in Ayrshire. This resulted in a Confiscation Order of £215,000 being imposed on an operator under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

As we enter 2024, we have the opportunity to build on considerable delivery success in 2023. For the future of our environment.

Avoid

Coastal Flood Hazard Map update

In November 2023, we published on the SEPA website an update to the coastal flood hazard maps for northeast Scotland, Orkney, and the Outer Hebrides. Coastal flooding can occur because of very high sea levels, from waves overtopping artificial defences and natural features, or, as is frequently the case, from a combination of the two. Previously our maps were based solely on the impacts of extreme still water levels over the land surface. Whilst they gave a fair representation of flooding nationally, they did not fully represent the impacts seen in some locations that are particularly vulnerable to waves.

The updated coastal flood hazard maps blend three different flood modelling approaches, depending on the characteristics of the coastline and expected impacts of potential flooding. We have incorporated wave overtopping models in areas specifically at risk from this sort of flooding. We also provide future flood risk maps based on updated climate change projections. This means our data will support better decision making in relation to how we can make our coastal communities and infrastructure more resilient to flooding from the sea, both now and in the future. (D Pirie)

Protect

Loch Katrine reservoir incident

On 9 October 2023, SEPA were notified of an issue with the main spillway at Loch Katrine reservoir. This required emergency work to prevent damage to the dam. Three thousand domestic and business properties within the Loch Katrine reservoir inundation area would be impacted if the dam failed.

SEPA’s Reservoir Emergency Procedure was initiated. We engaged with our Category 1 Responder Partners, and Local Resilience Partnership meetings were held to assess and coordinate response. Throughout the incident SEPA worked successfully with partners ensuring all relevant parties were kept informed and any requested information was disseminated appropriately to provide support.

As a result, the water level was successfully lowered within the reservoir and emergency works were undertaken which continued for several weeks. These temporary measures secured the spillway and more permanent remedial work is planned for this summer. (D Harley)

UK Integrated Regulatory Review Service Mission

The Integrated Regulatory Review Service allows the International Atomic Energy Agency and member states to assess how well Government and regulatory bodies are complying with the stringent international requirements (Basic Safety Standards) for nuclear and radiological sources. Given the potential consequences of incidents involving these sources, the assessments are considered critical. The UK will be subject to a follow-up Integrated Regulatory Review Service mission in January 2024, involving the UK and Scottish Government and UK/Scottish agencies responsible for regulating the UK’s nuclear and radiological sources. This mission is a follow-up to the previous October 2019 UK mission and report. It will be reviewing progress on the 2019 recommendations, covering topics such as public engagement, resources, source monitoring and control. The mission report is due to be published in late summer 2024. (D Harley)

Petroineos pipeline leak

Grangemouth-Finnart cross country pipeline leak, which occurred on 2 January 2024 in Glen Fruin (Argyll and Bute), was a significant environmental event and required a multi-agency response. We have been working collaboratively, ensuring the environment is protected from harm and that reassurance is provided to stakeholders and the wider public. We are chairing the Environment Sub-Group, providing important information to concerned environmental stakeholders.

Being confident on the environmental impact is crucial to our regulatory response. It is important that the operator understands the action it must take to reduce the likelihood of environmental impact. To date, we are satisfied the surface water environment has been protected from harm. Once the pipeline is repaired, we will continue to be involved. This will ensure the appropriate remediation measures are implemented and the site restored. (L Bunten)

Litter and Fly Tipping Strategy, private landowners grant

SEPA is the lead agency in delivering an action in support of the Scottish Government’s Litter and Fly Tipping Strategy to “Develop guidance and carry out trials to better support private landowners to deter and deal with fly tipping affecting their land”. In partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, a grant scheme was designed and launched by SEPA to provide access to a Scottish Government sponsored fund for local projects looking to tackle fly tipping and which would aim to deliver additional community and economic benefits.

Of the successful applications, grants totalling £17,980 have been provided to support a range of projects such as a response to a fly tipping hotspot identified in the national press as “one of the worst rubbish hotspots.” SEPA is now progressing engagement to develop new guidance for private landowners to support them in preventing and tackling fly tipping, and a workshop was hosted by SEPA on 18 January 2024 to begin this phase of the work. More details can be found here. (L Bunten)

Litter and Fly Tipping Strategy, digital interventions

SEPA is the lead agency in delivering an action from the Litter and Fly tipping Strategy to “Increase use of digital technologies to detect and disrupt fly tippers”. This is in recognition of the role that the online environment plays in facilitating the provision of waste carrier services to the public, particularly Facebook. Detecting and disrupting the use of platforms such as Facebook by unregistered waste carriers should provide a barrier to those with any intention to fly tip waste collected from members of the public. It also provides an opportunity to reach the public and divert any unintentional use of an unregistered waste carrier. The aim of the action is to enhance our use of open-source research to identify unregistered waste carriers advertising online and to undertake both interventions and, where evidence supports it, investigations leading to enforcement action. Although the work is at an early stage, we have identified 90 Facebook profiles advertising waste collection and early indications are that as many as 50% of these are not registered with SEPA, and direct regulatory contact with them has begun via phone, text and email. We will also use all appropriate action to encourage registration with SEPA and take further enforcement action when supported by the evidence. The ultimate ambition of the project is to remove profiles of unregistered waste carriers. This will require engagement and cooperation with Meta. That discussion has begun, an early pilot with a partner agency has indicated the potential success: four profiles used by unregistered waste carriers have been successfully submitted for removal to Meta. (L Bunten)

Ayrshire skip hire and waste collection operator sentenced for waste offences

An Ayrshire skip hire and waste collection operator has pled guilty to waste offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 after a SEPA investigation. The Operator pled guilty to five charges across a two and a half year time period.

The Sheriff admonished the operator at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on 10 January 2024 in recognition of the fact a £215,000 Confiscation Order had already been imposed and paid and the dates/age of the charges libelled. A Confiscation Order made under The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 recovers the financial benefit made by those undertaking criminal activity including environmental offences such as the unauthorised deposit, treatment or disposal of waste. The matter was investigated by SEPA and referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. (L Bunten).

Adapt

Flood Risk Management Planning

We are working with our Flood Risk Management partners to understand and adapt to future flood risk by reviewing and updating Potentially Vulnerable Areas. Potentially Vulnerable Areas are areas where flood risk is considered to be nationally significant and are based on catchment areas. Sustainable Flood Risk Management objectives and actions are targeted on the communities within these areas. We have engaged directly with all 32 Local Authorities in preparation for the public consultation on Potentially Vulnerable Areas, launching later in the spring. (D Pirie)

Improve

Provision of evidence to the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Islands Committee on the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill

On 21 December 2023, SEPA gave evidence at the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Islands Committee on the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill, on primary legislation enacting a new farm payment system for Scotland. There was general alignment among witnesses on various topics such as the need for transformation and the requirement for tailored catchment scale approaches. Further detail on the session are available on the Scottish Parliament website. (D Harley)

Classifying Scotland’s water environment

On 21 December 2023 we successfully published the State of the Water Environment Report 2022 and the associated classification results. These results build on the prioritised updates to the 2020 classification and is the first comprehensive update since 2019. We have seen a net gradual improvement in most aspects of classification since 2020.

The overall condition of our water environment improved by 0.7% since 2020 (from 66.4% to 67.1% in good or better condition), continuing the gradual long-term trend of improving condition. The detailed results have been published on SEPA’s water classification hub. (D Pirie)

Provision of evidence to Scottish Government on meeting future guidelines for air quality

The Scottish Government are considering future policy measures to further improve air quality towards proposed new guideline limits. They have asked SEPA to provide modelling and evidence to help with the decision-making process. We have developed interactive data tools to explore projections of background air pollutant concentrations. This helped to assess the contribution of each activity sector and to compare their contribution against upcoming air quality guidelines.

We have adapted models that we developed for Local Authorities to help design Low Emission Zones, for Scotland's four main cities. These models are now being used to help the Scottish Government assess policy measures that could reduce roadside concentrations of NO2 in line with future new guidelines. (D Pirie)

Permit reviews

SEPA has a statutory duty to ensure that operators use Best Available Techniques for preventing, or where that is not practicable, reducing emissions from an installation. Once published SEPA have a duty to review all relevant permits against the Best Available Techniques conclusions. Below are two examples of activity areas that have been reviewed.

SEPA regulates intensive pig and poultry farming under the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012, with over 100 of these sites in Scotland. This includes maintaining our engagement, permitting and compliance work within the sector.

In 2022 we successfully delivered the statutory Best Available Technique Reference Document review programme for intensive pig and poultry farming. These reviews ensure that the industry continually improves its environmental performance using Best Available Techniques. The team has delivered a 100% inspection rate for intensive agriculture sites for 2023/24 and are following up on any outstanding regulatory issues. We are now able to take a more prioritised approach over the next three years for this sector, focusing on higher risk sites.

SEPA has also focussed on the statutory Best Available Technique Reference Document review programme for Waste Incineration installations. Scotland has 14 waste incineration installations. SEPA has successfully delivered these reviews by the legal deadline of 4 December 2023. In Accordance with Industrial Emissions Directive, SEPA have a four-year window from the date of Best Available Technique Reference Document publication to the installation being Best Available Technique compliant.

The importance of these reviews means that industry continually improves its environmental performance using best available techniques and we can be clear about what areas of non-compliance need to be targeted at each site and will be able to focus on effectively regulating the sector, using updated permit conditions. (L Bunten)

Polmadie Burn – chromium contamination

The Polmadie Burn is a small watercourse in Glasgow on the edge of the Shawfield regeneration area. It has been bright green for over 50 years because of historic ground water and land chromium contamination. This contamination then enters the Clyde and the water quality in the Clyde Estuary is downgraded. Previous interventions had some success in improving this as part of the wider Shawfield regeneration, but the Polmadie Burn remained in an unsatisfactory green condition.

To help find a solution, SEPA formed a working group with partners Clyde Gateway, the local authority, and Scottish Water. Optioneering funding was obtained by Clyde Gateway. SEPA proposed an option that removed the contaminated ground water before it entered the burn. It was agreed to run this option as a trial which is now fully operational and will run for approximately six months. There is also a treatability study being undertaken on the contaminated ground water collected from the culvert. The results of this are due in February 2024. (L Bunten)

Implementation of the Sea Lice Framework

In October 2021, Scottish Ministers established SEPA as the new lead body responsible for managing the particular risk to wild salmon and sea trout posed by sea lice. SEPA has since developed and consulted on a Sea Lice Framework which outlines a proportionate, evidence-based regulatory approach to protect young wild salmon from the parasite. The Framework will help to support the sustainable development of fish farming in Scotland by guiding development to the least sensitive locations. It will also provide an effective and efficient framework to assess risk and apply appropriate management measures, where necessary, in order to protect wild fish. We will be implementing the new regulatory framework for protecting the environment and wild salmon on 1 February 2024 and for sea trout from Spring 2025.

This delivered Ministers’ aspirations to have the new regulatory framework in place before young salmon migrate to the sea for the first time in 2024.

This outcome is the result of ongoing and sustained interaction with many different parties. It gives us a solid and stable platform from which to build, as our experience of regulating interactions between sea lice from fish farms and wild salmonids grows. (L Bunten, D Pirie)

How we are tackling the ecological crisis using environmental DNA (eDNA)

We led a new collaborative project that explored how we can best tackle the ecological crisis by studying traces of genetic material found in the environment. The study was funded by Scottish Government and conducted in partnership with organisations including NatureScot and the Scottish Government's Marine Directorate.

Environmental DNA, or eDNA, is genetic material present in the environment, such as in water, soil, or air. eDNA can be traced from shed cells, bodily fluids, or biological secretions deposited by animals, plants, fungi and bacteria. The project demonstrated that we can use eDNA to deliver against a regulatory backdrop. This offers a potentially powerful tool for assessing the water environment in Scotland. It showed eDNA analysis can be used to detect, identify and map the distribution of many different species simultaneously, including important threatened and invasive species, without directly observing capturing or collecting them. This streamlines biodiversity monitoring methods and supports nature conservation.

We were able to classify sites based on their condition by eDNA testing alone. Some eDNA results were directly comparable to existing laboratory methods used for assessing the health of habitats. The classification for freshwater lochs using fish and invertebrate eDNA showed encouraging results, as did sampling fungal eDNA to assess woodland soil condition. (D Pirie)

Integrated Authorisation Framework Project - SEPA's consultation

On 17 January 2023, SEPA published the first consultation of the Integrated Authorisation Framework project. The Integrated Authorisation Framework, established by the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018, is part of Scottish Government and SEPA’s Better Regulation Programme. This aims to deliver a risk-based, proportionate system of environmental regulation. In line with One SEPA Modernisation, this consultation will help shape how we're modernising the regulatory framework; helping businesses and people across Scotland protect the environment. The consultation is a significant milestone for the programme, seeking stakeholder views on the proposed types of authorisations needed to bring water, waste management and industrial activities (currently known as pollution prevention and control activities) into the framework.

A programme of stakeholder engagement, media relations and social media will run alongside the consultation until it closes on 12 April 2024.

SEPA staff also worked closely with Scottish Government to support drafting of amended Regulations for consultation. The Scottish Government published its consultation on proposed amendments on 15 December 2023. (L Bunten)

Work to re-configure SEPA’s Aberdeen laboratory underway

Major building work began in December 2023 to re-configure our Aberdeen laboratory. The work is scheduled to be completed by the end of March to ensure the laboratory can analyse bathing water samples for the 2024 bathing water season. The Aberdeen laboratory plays a key role in generating the evidence that underpins our work to protect and improve the environment. The re-design will provide laboratory capabilities needed to help deliver our changing evidence priorities. (D Pirie)

Delivering coastal water protection through shared services

SEPA conduct programmes of coastal water monitoring and fish farm inspections. This is to assess the effects of regulated activities on Scotland’s coastal waters, ensuring operators are complying with their permit conditions. These programmes are carried out using our fleet of vessels, including our 24-metre-long survey vessel, the Sir John Murray. The Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate operates a larger fleet of vessels, including research vessels and marine fisheries protection vessels.

During the autumn of 2023, we trialled a new, shared services approach to the management of the Sir John Murray. The trial involved the Marine Directorate’s vessel management team and crew, managing and operating the vessel. Alongside them, SEPA scientists were onboard collecting environmental samples.

Following the trial, we believe that centralising vessel management (under a long-term shared services arrangement) would provide a range of benefits for the public sector such as reduced emissions through use of the closest vessel to survey locations (and potential savings on running costs) and increased usage of SEPA’s vessels for public benefit.

We are now working with Marine Directorate with the aim of setting up a shared services approach for delivering our 2024 coastal water survey programme. (David Pirie)

Warn

Flood Warning Service Delivery

Some unsettled weather continued in November and December. Our Flood Forecasting and Warning service continued issuing more regional Flood Alerts and local Flood Warnings with the risk raised to amber for a few days (15-17 December 2023). This has all been whilst we were managing the recovery and following up on multiple enquiries for the events in October.

During the festive period, Storm Gerrit affected many parts of southern and central Scotland on 27-28 December 2023. This brought disruption due to a combination of heavy rain, gale force winds, and snow. There were 17 regional Flood Alerts and over 30 local Flood Warnings issued and updated during this period. SEPA provided support to local partnerships and the Scottish Government Resilience Room. There was significant surface water disruption on the transport network, including train cancellations and the A82, A96, A9, and A90 all being closed.

Significant flooding was also experienced in Cupar, Fife (an area outside our local warnings areas), and across Fife and Perthshire. The Whitesands area of Dumfries was also affected. (D Pirie)

In addition to our performance report, this report represents a strategic summary of the Agency’s delivery activity across the period.