Pollution

Pollution to land, air and water can have serious health and environmental implications unless strictly controlled.

We put regulations and strategies in place for controlling environmental pollution and emissions, and support the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and local authorities to implement these.

Actions

We are controlling pollution in Scotland by:

assisting local authorities and SEPA in cleaning up contaminated land
working with SEPA as the environmental regulator for industrial emissions
developing domestic policies and initiatives to improve air quality
implementing legislation and issuing guidance to help control and prevent noise and nuisance
setting measures to help protect the water environment

Background

Report a pollution incident

Pollution accidents or incidents that require an urgent response should be directed to SEPA's 24/7 pollution hotline: 0800 80 70 60

Role of SEPA

SEPA is the main authority for pollution issues in Scotland. Its main responsibilities in relation to pollution are:

regulating emissions from industrial installations
controlling pollution from waste management activities
regulating installations using radioactive materials
regulating discharges to rivers, lochs, estuaries and coastal waters
advising us on the development of new policies for protecting Scotland's environment

Find more information on SEPA's website.

Role of local authorities

Local authorities main roles in relation to pollution are:

ensuring local air quality meets national standards, and taking action where it does not
inspecting their areas to identify areas of contaminated land, and ensuring that problem sites are cleaned up
collecting and disposing of household waste
dealing with complaints related to statutory nuisance issues
taking action to control litter, clean up graffiti and address dog fouling
controlling development through the land use planning system
regulating for the identification and remediation of contaminated land