SCOTTISH Water has hit back at a UK minister’s comments about water pollution in Scotland.
Labour’s Environment Secretary Steve Reed said in a Channel 4 interview last night that pollution levels in Scotland are “worse than they are in England”.
In response, Scotland’s Climate Secretary Gillian Martin has written a letter hitting out at the “misleading” comments and saying it is "clear that Scotland has a higher performance".
But now, Scottish Water – the publicly owned utility company that provides water and wastewater services in Scotland – has also responded to Reed’s comments.
"Scottish Water is the UK's top performing water company and most trusted utility in the UK according to the Customer Service Institute,” a spokesperson told The National.
"In addition to producing world-class drinking water, the independent regulator, Sepa, says 87% of water bodies in Scotland are either good or excellent, the highest proportion ever.”
They added: "The Cunliffe Report also makes clear that 'Scotland has a greater number of water bodies achieving ‘good’ status compared to England and Wales'"
The final report from the Independent Water Commission led by Sir Jon Cunliffe was published this week.
It found that 66% of Scotland’s water bodies are of good ecological status compared with 16.1% in England and 29.9% in Wales.
Although, the report does note that this is, in part, due to Scotland having a much lower population density.
