Contaminated Land Advisory Group Minutes: June 2024

Attendees and apologies

External Attendees

• Local Pollution Liaison (Contaminated Land) Sub-group (LPLSG) - Central and West
• LPLSG - Central and East
• LPLSG - North
• LPLSG - South and East
• Environmental Industries Commission (EIC)
• Law Society Scotland (LSS)
• University of the West of Scotland (UWS)
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
• Public Health Scotland (PHS)
• Scottish Pollution Control Co-ordinating Committee / Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (SPCCC/REHIS)
• Scottish Contaminated Land Forum (SCLF)
• Environmental Protection Scotland (EPS)
• Specialists in Land Condition (SiLC)

Scottish Government officials from the following divisions

• Building Standards Technical Unit (SG BSTU)
• Environmental Quality and Resilience (SG EQR)

Items and actions

Welcome and housekeeping

New members were introduced: New representative from PHS; and a representative from the SiLC panel.

Updates on relevant work from Scottish Government 

Update on status of groundwater directions, which the SG water environment policy team continues to lead on, liaising with SEPA’s water and CL teams. Once in place, there will be a lead-in period before implementation and training sessions to introduce the new standards, expectation this will initially be for local authorities and then for other stakeholders. 

SG EQR provided updates on several pieces of policy development relating to the contaminated land regime relating to prior work halted due to the covid pandemic. Further details will be provided to stakeholders as timelines become clearer.
BSTU released their report on CO2 mine gas – risk assessment best practice earlier this year. Authors have been taking part in training events for both building standards and environmental health / contaminated land local authority staff. 

SEPA and SG EQR have been invited to a new cross-government group (led by EA and UKG) to explore the specific issues of perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in relation to land contamination (a sub-group of a wider cross-government group on PFAS policy). We will continue to provide updates as this progresses.

SG EQR are considering the benefits of commissioning a new state of contaminated land survey and requested feedback from the group. CLAG members commenting noted support for carrying out such a survey. 

Actions

• SG EQR to share further details of policy development as soon as possible. 

Update from LCRM working group

The LCRM working group, comprising SG EQR, SEPA and local authority representatives from the 4 pollution liaison groups, have been meeting monthly since February 2024. 

Working group members updated CLAG on the planned outputs (a position statement and in-text changes to be added to guidance), timelines and the progress made to date. The intention is to offer CLAG members the opportunity to comment on any draft documents over the summer. 

The group has been working on the principle to make the minimum adjustments required to ensure clarity for the use of the guidance in Scotland, while maximising consistency, noting that there are more similarities than differences in approach across the UK. 

Discussion within CLAG focused on positions on the National Quality Mark Scheme (NQMS), and the Category 4 Screening Levels (C4SL), which are referenced in LCRM and are not adopted officially in Scotland. There was general agreement around the direction of positions on these topics set out by LCRM working group, which will be shared as part of the draft position statement. 

Definition of a competent person was also raised as a key area of importance, which will also be addressed in the position statement.

Actions

• LCRM working group to complete drafting of outputs 
• SG EQR to share draft documents for comments from the CLAG (aim to get this out in early July) 
• SG EQR to explore development of a firmer position on C4SL

Building standards – next steps of work

SG BSTU provided a recap of discussions at the last meeting, the relevance of recommendations from the mine gas risk assessment report published in January. SG BSTU also reiterated intention in medium term to update the land contamination aspects of their technical guidance, and that CLAG will be asked to feed into this when this occurs.

CLAG agreed to set up a subsidiary working group to take forward initial work to draw out recommendations from the mine gas report that are relevant to wider contamination issues. The aim will be to create a short best practice note focused on working arrangements, roles and responsibilities across building standards, planning and environmental health local authority staff. 

CLAG agreed that it would be helpful to extend the invitation of this group to include members of Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS) and Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) to get perspectives of different groups. The intention is for the group to meet monthly beginning around September. 

Actions

• ALL to send through expressions of interest to be members of the working group by end of July
• SG EQR to contact LABSS and HOPS colleagues to invite to working group
• SG EQR to co-ordinate interested parties, finalise membership and arrange first meeting (likely to be scheduled for September)

Future work planning discussion

CLAG members suggested other topics to be discussed in future CLAG meetings. Topics of interest from the group included management of soil & stone, soil re-use, soil health (incl. looking at England’s definition of waste code of practice); water environment exemptions - cost-benefit analysis guidance relating to land contamination issues; consideration of CLAG communications options for sharing information; PFAS and emerging contaminants; landfill erosion and wider climate change impacts on land contamination.

SG EQR noted that a number of topics raised are not the direct policy responsibility of the EQR policy team or other SG CLAG members, which needs to be taken into account in setting out future agendas. SG EQR can support by facilitating discussion, connecting with relevant policy teams where appropriate, and linking to other engagement opportunities.

Actions

• ALL to send further ideas for topics to cover in future meetings
• SG EQR to provide a suggested agenda for the next meeting