Seòmar agus comataidhean

I will go back to what David Harley said about the bathing water quality designation process. My understanding is that any application for bathing water designation in Scotland is required to meet a minimum threshold of 150 daily users. That differs from England and Wales, where there is no threshold for daily users or the number is much lower—I think that it is about 40.

Is SEPA looking at reforming that and making suggestions to ministers? Your point was that the situation is all fine in designated bathing water quality areas, at least over an entire season, but if an area where people regularly wild swim cannot be designated, who will monitor it? How will we get a partnership approach to address the problems of pollution in areas that people use, but not at a level that is above the threshold of 150 daily users?

Okay. Nick, do you have any reflections on that, in relation to biodiversity provisions, for example?

What are those positive opportunities? You talked about a more local approach to redistributing goods although, ultimately, we are trying to reduce the amount of unsold goods that are being distributed like that. For businesses that are under development at the moment, what are the positive opportunities or discussions that you have been having?

I will turn to SEPA to ask for your reflections on how a ban on unsold goods disposal could be enforced.

Would we expect SEPA to be the enforcement body?

That is obviously pretty critical to the bill, so it would be good if SEPA could write back to the committee with detail on how you might take on those duties and how monitoring could take place around compliance.

That is good. Are there any views from NatureScot?

Yes.

Okay. Can you go back to my question about how much public finance will come in? Will you explain a bit more about the model? How will it be monitored, what are the opportunities and risks with it, and at what stage of development is the pilot with Hampden & Co?

That might be useful. One thing that was highlighted to us when we did a mini-inquiry into air quality and ESS’s review was the positive role that SEPA plays in the development of air quality management plans—in particular, in working with local communities, enhancing data and assisting with public understanding of what an air quality problem is in a particular locality and what the solutions might be.

Given that one of ESS’s recommendations was that local authorities need to develop more of those plans, and to develop them within 12 months, are you able to resource that side of things? If a new group was set up in Perth or elsewhere to help to develop an air quality action plan for the area, would you be able to resource that demand?