Hundreds of protected areas are under pressure from Scotland’s massive deer herd. Most agree deer numbers must be controlled to protect the environment, but are split on what should be done.
Edinburgh University students were “interrogated” by police at their desks over posters featuring Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, prompting dozens to complain.
Unsafe levels of faecal bacteria were recorded at dozens of Scotland’s best beaches this summer. Swimmers and paddlers could be at risk, but officials insist water quality remains high.
UK environment minister Steve Reed’s comments on pollution levels in Scotland have caused controversy.
In an interview with Channel 4 News posted on YouTube on 21 July 2025, the Labour minister said that sewage pollution was worse in Scotland than in England, as he argued against the nationalisation of water supply.
“In Scotland they have a nationalised water company but pollution levels in Scotland are worse than they are in England”.
Steve Reed, UK environment secretary
Ferret Fact Service looked at this claim and found it Mostly False.
Steve Reed MP was interviewed on Channel 4 News on Monday, where he discussed the Labour government’s plans to reform the UK water industry.
The government plans to scrap the UK’s water regulator, Ofwat, and replace it with a “single powerful super-regulator responsible for the entire water sector”.
This was in response to an independent report into the water sector in England and Wales, commissioned by ministers and published in July 2025.
In the interview with journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Reed was asked if nationalising the water supply in England and Wales would lead to better value and service for customers. He argued against nationalisation, citing the alleged cost of the move.
Reed also argued that nationalisation “wasn’t guaranteed to work”, citing Scotland’s nationalised water supply, which he claimed saw pollution levels worse in north of the border than in England.
While water services were privatised in England and Wales in 1989 as part of then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s drive to sell off state-run industries, Scotland’s water services stayed in public hands and since 2002 they have been provided by Scottish Water, a publicly-owned company answerable to Scottish ministers.
Water pollution can be measured in several different ways. The percentage of bodies of water in good condition is often cited in media reports about water quality and lack of pollution.
The independent water commission’s report compared the different nations of the UK, and found Scotland had more water bodies achieving ‘good’ status compared to England and Wales. Scotland’s percentage of ‘good’ condition water bodies was 66 per cent, compared with 16 per cent in England, and 30 per cent in Wales.
It should be noted that Scotland has a lower population density than England, which is a key factor in determining good status.
In Scotland, 87 per cent of bathing waters are considered to be in good condition, according to recent statistics. This is broadly comparable with England (85 per cent) but lower than Wales (94 per cent)
Another way to look at the level of pollution in water is by looking at sewage overflows. Both the Scottish and UK Governments have been criticised in recent years for the amount of sewage released into waterways, usually during heavy rainfall when the capacity of sewer pipes is exceeded.
To avoid flooding people’s homes and public areas, water companies are allowed to use ‘combined sewer overflows’ to discharge untreated sewage into rivers or seas.
Surfers Against Sewage, a group which campaigns against pollution in waters across the UK, found there were 23,498 discharges of sewage from overflows in Scotland in 2024.
In England, there were 450,398 discharges in 2024. However, England has more comprehensive monitoring of its sewage overflows, with almost all being monitored across the country. This means that sewage overflows are recorded and included in statistics.
In Scotland, there is a lack of data for many overflows that exist. Surfers Against Sewage found that 6.7 per cent of Scottish Water’s network of overflows was monitored, meaning the true number of overflow discharges could be significantly higher.
Scottish Water has committed to improving its monitoring, and had installed 1,000 new monitors by the end of 2024, which it claimed would bring monitoring up to about 35 per cent of storm overflows.
Scottish monitoring has been criticised by Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS), the Scottish Government body which scrutinises environmental law.
Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS), the Scottish Government body which scrutinises environmental law said in 2024: “There is no comprehensive, publicly available information on the scale and environmental impact of spills from storm overflows in Scotland”.
“Where there is data, it is clear that some sites spill much more frequently than should be expected, some of them hundreds of times a year,” the agency said.
The UK Government cited the level of pollution incidents per 10,000km of sewage pipe as evidence for higher levels of pollution in Scotland.
A report from ESS looked at comparisons between Scotland and England.
It stated that such comparisons should be treated with caution “since the data for Scotland is presented by financial year compared to by calendar year in the other countries and there may be some differences in counting and reporting”.
Scottish Water data indicated that there were 36 category 1 to 3 water and waste water incidents per 10,000 km of sewer in Scotland in 2023-24. According to data analysed by ESS, there were 41 such incidents per 10,000km in England in 2023.
Steve Reed’s claim that pollution levels in Scotland are worse than in England is not supported by most of the evidence. Scotland has a higher percentage of water bodies achieving ‘good’ status, and the number of spillage incidents per 10,000km of sewage pipe is slightly lower in Scotland. Comparisons between Scotland and England on the use of sewage overflows is difficult to make due to a relative lack of monitoring in Scotland.
Main image: House of Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Hundreds of protected areas are under pressure from Scotland’s massive deer herd. Most agree deer numbers must be controlled to protect the environment, but are split on what should be done.
Edinburgh University students were “interrogated” by police at their desks over posters featuring Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, prompting dozens to complain.
Unsafe levels of faecal bacteria were recorded at dozens of Scotland’s best beaches this summer. Swimmers and paddlers could be at risk, but officials insist water quality remains high.
Footage of farmed trout suffocating, haemorrhaging, and being beaten with batons in a slaughterhouse has prompted an official complaint to a government regulator.
