Sewage: The SNP’s multi-million-pound industry

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said that failing to tackle Scotland's sewage scandal is a multi-million-pound industry as he revealed that government-owned Scottish Water has handed out nearly £3 million in remuneration to its three executives since 2020.  

New analysis of Company House records has revealed that government-owned Scottish Water has paid out:  

• Total remuneration of £2,901,000 to its three executives since 2020.  
• £1,131,000 of this was in bonuses, benefits and incentives, with £628,000 being paid out in 2021/22 alone.

During last year alone, sewage was dumped into Scotland’s waterways 14,000 times, releasing the equivalent of 19,000 Olympic swimming pools worth of sewage.    

These revelations about remuneration come on the eve of First Minister's Questions, at which the issue is due to be raised. 

Scottish Liberal Democrats have committed that our manifesto for the next Scottish Parliament election will contain provision for a new Clean Water Act. It will see: 

• Scotland’s Victorian sewage network updated.  
• Every sewage dump monitored and published with binding targets for their reduction.  
• A blue flag system for Scotland’s rivers.  
• A complete ban on the release of sewage in protected areas such as bathing waters.  

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:  

“Under the SNP, failing to tackle Scotland's sewage scandal is a multi-million-pound industry.

“It is utterly shameful that we have a government-owned water company where execs pocket bumper bonuses while our rivers, lochs and coastlines are destroyed.  

“We don't even know the true scale of this destruction because only a pitiful fraction of sewage discharge points are properly monitored.  

“Nobody should be rewarded for pumping sewage into our rivers and waterways. Nationalist ministers have become little more than spin doctors for the failing government-owned water company and its outdated standards.

“To turn the tide on this scandal, Scottish Liberal Democrats have published plans for a Clean Water Act that would see vital updates to our sewage network and a clamp down on discharges.”