Petition PE1988, which was lodged by Sue Wallis, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to review the process for allowing raw sewage discharge from homes into Scottish coastal waters, provide additional funding to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for enforcement and introduce legislation to ban households from discharging raw sewage.
The committee previously considered the petition on 8 March, when we agreed to write to SEPA and the Law Society of Scotland. The Law Society of Scotland’s written submission outlines the process and requirements during the conveyancing process for properties with no connection to a mains sewer or private septic tank, which was of interest to members of the committee.
The most recent submission from SEPA confirms that the review of its approach to regulating private sewage discharges has concluded. It points to a service level statement that sets out SEPA’s intention to restrict the majority of its complaint action to providing advice and guidance. SEPA states that the onus will be on owners and operators to ensure that treatment systems meet the required standards and are maintained in good working order. Deterrent action by SEPA will take place through specific campaigns targeted at known problem areas.
The petitioner highlights the selective nature of SEPA’s approach and states that that will not help all areas. She shares that a member of staff at SEPA informed her that it does not have the resources to monitor agreements made by homeowners to repair broken pipes. The petitioner has asked that a new law be created to legally impose timescales for changing to a private processing system or connection to the mains sewer.
Do members have any comments or suggestions as to how we might proceed? I seek inspiration, colleagues.