Key Scottish Environment Statistics 2015

Introduction

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of the annual publication 'Key Scottish Environment Statistics'. This is only available as a web publication.

This publication aims to provide an easily accessible reference document which offers information on a wide range of environmental topics. It covers key datasets on the state of the environment in Scotland, with an emphasis on the trends over time wherever possible. The data are supplemented by text providing brief background information on environmental impacts and data source, a summary of the trend and brief information on the potential factors affecting the trend. An Excel spreadsheet containing the data sets and charts presented in this publication is also available on our website. http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Environment/Publications

This year, Key Scottish Environment Statistics includes two new pages. One showing trends in air pollutant emissions and one showing trends in the percentage of features on protected sites that are assessed as being in a favourable condition.

Revisions and Further Information

This publication provides a snapshot of the data as available at September 2015 and will not be revised throughout the year. An internet database, Scottish Environment Statistics Online (SESO), accompanies this publication as a data dissemination tool and contains additional statistics to those presented here, where available. Any data revisions or updates to the information presented in KSES will be made in SESO and identified in the Recent changes page. SESO also provides detailed metadata including information on data accuracy and suitability, quality assurance, comparability and data revisions. You will find a link to the corresponding SESO dataset at the bottom of each page of this publication, titled 'Metadata'. This will take you to the main SESO dataset for the data. You can then access the further information about the data by choosing the 'Source Metadata' tab of the SESO dataset page. The SESO database is continually updated throughout the year, so in order to obtain the most up-to-date statistics please refer to the address below. http://www.gov.scot/seso/

The Scottish Government Environment Statistics Revisions Policy can be found here: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Environment/Revisions/revisionspolicy.

Data Quality

This is a National Statistics publication.

National Statistics are certified as meeting the high professional standards within the UK Statistics Authority's Code of Practice for Official Statistics: http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html.

Not all of the figures included in this publication are designated as National Statistics. Some of the figures included are produced by other organisations. In addition to any quality assurance conducted by these organisations, the Scottish Government also conducts a quality assurance process for these datasets. We have deemed any dataset contained in this publication to be fit for purpose and of a high enough quality to be published in this document. Such datasets have previously been available on request from these organisations. Further information on the source of a dataset, and further metadata, can be obtained via the source and metadata links at the bottom of each page in the publication (see Revisions and Further Information above).

Sources of Further Environmental Statistics

A general directory of websites that provide environmental statistics for Scotland is available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Environment/Links

For some of the statistics included in the publication, reference is made to targets set by the Scottish Government; more details can be found on the Scotland Performs website at: http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms

Scotland's Environment Web is another source of environmental data. The indicators and data section of the website has been developed in collaboration with colleagues in SEPA and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). http://www.environment.scotland.gov.uk/get-informed/indicators-and-data/

Publication Key

Throughout this publication, an 'R' indicates that figures have been revised since the previous edition of Key Scottish Environment Statistics. A 'P' in the page title indicates that the latest figures are provisional. It should also be noted that throughout this publication, figures and percentages may not sum exactly due to rounding.

User Feedback

Our aim is to produce a useful, user-friendly publication. It would be helpful to us and we would be very grateful if you would let us know what you think about 'Key Scottish Environment Statistics' and how you make use of our statistics. If you also wish to send further comments on the format and contents of this publication they would be most welcome. If there are any other environmental statistics that you think should be included in this publication or published elsewhere, please use the details below to contact us.

Website: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Environment

Email: envstats@gov.scot

Tel: 0131 244 0445