Public health impact of air pollution from canal moorings next to schools: EIR release

Information requested

I wish to make the following FOI request further to the report in today’s Herald, ‘Clean Air Day: Doctors demand tougher curbs on pollution’, regarding children’s vulnerability to air pollution. 

For clarity, the emissions I refer to come from leisure and residential canal boats burning wood on stoves, idling diesel engines and running diesel generators for long periods, causing concentrated build-up of nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants close to school playgrounds and pupil commuting routes on towpaths.

1. Please state whether Scottish Government policy has been/is being updated to consider the public health impact that arises from providing funding for canal moorings developments in close proximity to schools, providing any relevant documentation. If not, please state this.
2. Please state whether the Scottish Government has begun/is beginning to review the public health impact on children of canal boat pollution at existing moorings close to schools, e.g. as seen affecting Linlithgow Academy and Linlithgow Primary School playgrounds, likewise providing evidence. If not, please state this.

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the Purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Request for information relating to canal boat moorings

The Scottish Government, jointly with other UK administrations, provides comprehensive technical guidance for local authorities to support them in undertaking all aspects of air quality work, including the siting of monitors. The guidance was most recently updated in August 2022 and can be found here.

The Scottish Government has not updated air quality guidance to take into account health impacts of canal boat mooring developments in proximity to schools and currently have no plans to do so. In regards to health impacts relating to canal boat pollution at existing moorings, the Scottish Government are not reviewing these and currently have no plans to do so. However, I have provided information below on existing monitoring measures that are in place for your convenience.

It may help if I explain that there is a comprehensive air quality monitoring network in Scotland which is operated by both central and local government which comprises 100 high precision automatic monitoring sites that record air quality data alongside 1100 diffusion tube sites which record nitrogen dioxide levels. Air pollution hotspots will generally be where high levels of traffic coincide with locations where large numbers of people are regularly present. The monitoring network and the supporting methodologies are sufficiently robust to ensure that any areas of concern will be picked up, including those locations where vulnerable groups are present, such as schools and hospitals.

You may find it helpful to note that no local authority has identified emissions from canal boat moorings as an issue of concern to date, should that situation change in the future the Scottish Government would expect the relevant authority or authorities to take any necessary action.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.