The Bathing Waters (Scotland) Regulations 2008

General duties S

4.—(1) SEPA and any local authority must promptly provide–

(a) such information to the Scottish Ministers about the quality of bathing waters as the Scottish Ministers may by written notice reasonably require; and

(b) such information to a local authority about the quality of the bathing waters in its area as the local authority may by written notice reasonably require.

(2) The Scottish Ministers and SEPA must exercise their relevant functions–

(a) so as to ensure that, by the end of the bathing season in 2015, all bathing waters are classified under regulation 10 as “sufficient”, “good” or “excellent”;

(b) so as to take such realistic and proportionate measures as they consider appropriate with a view to increasing the number of bathing waters classified under regulation 10 as “good” or “excellent”; and

(c) in all other respects, so as to secure compliance with the requirements of the bathing water directive.

(3) Notwithstanding–

(a) paragraph (2)(a) a bathing water may be classified as “poor”, provided the provisions of these Regulations relating to waters so classified are complied with;

(b) paragraph (2)(b) there shall be no obligation to take measures which would result in disproportionate expense or where any change in classification is infeasible.

(4) In this regulation, “relevant functions” means functions under the relevant enactments as defined in section 2 of the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003.

[F1 (5) When interpreting the bathing water directive for the purposes of this regulation, the bathing water directive is to be read subject to the following rules.

(6) The following are to be ignored—

(a) Article 3(8),

(b) in Article 3(9), the final sentence,

(c) in Article 4(2), the words from “If it so decides” to “four bathing seasons”.

(7) Article 6(3) is to be read as if the reference to Directive 2000/60/EC were a reference to Article 8 of that Directive.

(8) The following are to be ignored—

(a) Article 13,

(b) Article 14,

(c) Article 15(2),

(d) Article 18,

(e) in Annex III, paragraph 1(a), the words “and as provided for in Directive 2000/60/EC”.

(9) For the purposes of paragraph 7, Article 8 of Council Directive 2000/60/EC is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraph 1, in the final indent, for “Community legislation” there were substituted “ [F2 assimilated] law ”,

(b) in paragraph 2, the reference in the second sentence to Annex V to Council Directive 2000/60/EC were a reference to that Annex as modified by Part 1 of schedule 5 of the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Reg. 4(5)-(9) inserted (31.12.2020) by The Environment (EU Exit) (Scotland) (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2019 (S.S.I. 2019/26), regs. 1, 16(3); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F2 Word in reg. 4(9)(a) substituted (1.1.2024) by The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (Consequential Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/374), reg. 1(1), sch. 2 para. 11