Professor John Robertson OBA
Thanks to Dottie for guiding this piece:
In the Guardian today:
Steve Reed, the housing secretary, has been slapped down by the UK Statistics Authority for falsely claiming that Scottish rivers and lakes are more polluted than those in England. Reed made these comments this summer when he was environment secretary in order to demonstrate that a nationalised water sector would not necessarily deliver cleaner waterways. Scotland’s water is nationalised; England’s isn’t.
These claims were obviously false; Scotland has a much lower population density than England and many remote lakes and rivers which are not near town centres. Prof Dame Carol Propper, chair of the UKSA’s regulation committee, said in a letter to the SNP Seamus Logan:
The authority expects that ministers take care to avoid using data that is overly selective or missing appropriate context. Based on the statements made without discussion of their context, sources, and limitations, there is the potential for people to be misled about English and Scottish water quality and infrastructure.
Reports across the media, in July 2025, often pointed to this supposed evidence of failure:
Scotland’s monitoring of its water network is significantly worse.
Scotland does, admittedly, not waste time or money monitoring outflows where there is and never has been a source of pollution. England monitors a higher percentage of outflows because almost everything there is polluted – SIMPLE!
What will look bad at first sight for some, is a classic example of misleading reporting. Scotland has 18 743 km of coastline compared to England’s 8 982, only one-tenth of the population and, crucially far fewer areas requiring monitoring.
Dr Simon Boxall of Southampton University, a leading expert on water quality, explained this in the National, in August 2022:
An overview of the most obvious data on bathing water quality superficially appears to show Scotland actually has poorer-quality bathing spots than England.
But this is only half the picture, according to one of the UK’s leading experts on water quality.
Scottish swimmers paddling in and around Scotland’s 18,743km coastline do enjoy cleaner water than those taking a dip down south, said Dr Simon Boxall, based at the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton University.
Looking at the monitored “bathing waters” in Scotland paints a slightly misleading picture of overall water quality in the country, he told The National.
Compared with England, Scotland’s monitored swimming spots are poorer quality: just 38% of the 85 identified locations were recognised as “excellent” according to EU standards, compared with 71% of those in England.
Most of Scotland’s waters are not cause for concern, he said, meaning they did not need the same level of monitoring as takes place in England.
He added: “I would say Scotland does a better job [of monitoring] than England does.”
“If we’re not going into some of the more remote parts, for example north-west Scotland, because there’s no need to, I know full well the beaches up there are phenomenally good,” he added.
“If they are focusing their efforts on areas which are likely to suffer from pollution, then they’ll get more positives – in terms of pollution – than if they are doing the fairly broad-sweep approach of looking at every 10km on the south coast of England.
“So, you are going to find patchiness – there are going to be parts of Scotland, if you look at the Clyde estuary for example where you’ve got a huge population, you’re going to have a higher level of pollution.”
“To be fair to Scotland, they’re actually not monitoring a lot of the areas which don’t need it,” he added.
“In England, they tend to take more of the, ‘we’ll do every, say 70km approach’.
“They’re bound to find more high-quality beaches because there are, particularly in the west coast of England, fewer potential inputs.”
How clean then is Scotland’s water?
A quick factcheck tells us:
The flows and levels in Scotland’s water environment are currently at good or better condition in 90% of rivers, lochs and groundwaters. This is up from 88% when we published the second RBMPs. https://www.thenational.scot/news/20833401.scotland-compare-england-water-beaches-closed-sewage-spills-south/
Why is this the case?
Does Scotland show there is an alternative to this system? Scottish Water is a wholly public entity directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament. It offers lower bills than any of the English companies, and invests around 35% more in infrastructure. This is delivering results for the Scottish taxpayer and public.https://www.environment.gov.scot/our-environment/water/scotland-s-freshwater/
And England’s water? NINE times more likely to contain sewage
From the Guardian on 12th August 2023:
‘An utter disgrace’: 90% of England’s most precious river habitats blighted by raw sewage and farming pollution. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/12/an-utter-disgrace-90-of-englands-most-precious-river-habitats-blighted-by-raw-sewage-and-farming-pollution
This requires little effort.
England above, Scotland below:
The flows and levels in Scotland’s water environment are currently at good or better condition in 90% of rivers, lochs and groundwaters. This is up from 88% when we published the second RBMPs (River Basin Management Planning).
So far, only STV, Guardian and Independent covering this.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Yes but the damage is done re that BritNat’s lies, people will not see the facts.
In terms of Scotland, would it depend on what sort of pollution, and where it comes from? Nuclear waste? Other toxins along with whatever is going on in all of UK waters?
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Steve Reed is just another clueless Labour politician based at Labour HQ who gets dodgy information from the Labour branch office in Scotland , and I am also sure that he gets dodgy information from some of the huge disappointments , as in the 37 Scottish Labour MP’s, who were elected last year in the UK GE.
However in his former role as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (for England) then he , Reed, should have been expected to have been more clued up aka informed...however when it comes to Scotland people like Steve Reed think they can just say anything derogatory or untruthful and get away with it.
Starmer also sources all of his misinformation and disinformation from the branch office in Scotland as well……..which is why he is often heard to promote dodgy stats relating to Scotland …….
If we had a widespread real Scottish media within Scotland that always acted in Scotland’s best interests and so then were always prepared to defend Scotland against WM generated lies……. then instances like this, as in blatant lies from a Labour UK government Minister, would be well exposed and also rightly condemned.……
Then of course we would also have a majority of the public in Scotland who would then be far better informed.……unfortunately that is not the case, in fact we have the exact opposite based on last year’s GE results in Scotland……..as Labour have now proven not to be the assumed answer and solution for the woes of people in Scotland who were desperate to oust the Tories at WM .
I suspect that there will be absolutely no shame felt by Steve Reed for his obvious attempt to lie about Scottish water or indeed that he will suffer any reckoning from his party for lying, in fact he will be probably be supported by them and so will be told….’Good try, better luck next time and keep it up’……..that, it seems, is Labour’s way….
(Based upon the huge amounts of evidence and examples on this site and also on other sites that exposes Labour’s far too many lies , all spoken only for them to try to win power and then to maintain it).
However it seems that Labour have more than just the SNP to worry about politically within the UK……….as they now have to fend off fellow right wing parties like Reform UK and then also others in complete opposition to them, as in those who are actually politically Left wing like the Green party in England and Corbyn’s new party called Your Party……….
Labour will not win the right wing vote and they have now also lost the Left wing vote (as they have well and truly abandoned their former assumed position of being a Left wing party when Corbyn was in charge of them)…….and they have no one to blame but themselves as a party and also their poor choice of leader, Sir Keir Starmer, a political Dud if ever there was one….
Anas and his Labour contingent at Holyrood must be wondering how on earth it all went so wrong for them as he must have (wrongly) assumed, based on last year’s GE results, that he would be a shoo in next year as the next Labour FM for Scotland…….
I am not wanting to count any chickens before they are hatched but surely that particular bubble has well and truly burst for him……as a goal and as a reality.
Labour now deservedly reaping that, which they themselves , have sown ……and now, if nothing else, it will surely at least end Starmer’s incessant gloating at WM on the temporary triumph Labour had over the SNP last year in the UK GE .
#Karma
Liz S
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