Strategic issues - Scotland

The Scottish Government has published its annual report to Parliament, required under both the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 (WEWS) and the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 (Floods Act). The available guidance on this is contained in policy advice that accompanied the development of rules for third party representations under CAR and essentially will be any deterioration in the status of a water body, any impact on protected areas or any effect on the interests of third parties. Two policy statements have been issued, one general and one specifically on the emergency powers; the Scottish Government has also produced an analysis of the consultation responses. The Scottish Government has also published an analysis of the consultation responses and some of these were quite critical, especially in terms of the level of detail and specificity in the guidance.