Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003: updating environmental standards consultation analysis

On 26 October 2021, the Scottish Government published an analysis of responses to its consultation on proposals for new environmental standards for Scotland’s water environment, as well as updates to some of the assessment methods used for deriving such standards. The proposed updates were: 

• river fish statistical methodology 
• river phytobenthos assessment method 
• loch fish new eDNA assessment method 
• loch morphology: bank protection assessment method 
• introduction of spatial standards for fish barrier assessment 
• new nitrogen standards for lochs 
• invasive non-native species list 
• river flow standards changes: 
  • artificially increased flows in high hydrological status waterbodies 
  • short term abstraction in good hydrological status waterbodies

The majority of responses were in favour of the proposals and the Scottish Government intend to introduce the standards as outlined in the consultation.