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An update on diet and healthy weight consultations was given to The Scottish Parliament by Jenni Minto The Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health on 30 May, announcing that in the autumn the Scottish Government will undertake a consultation on regulations to restrict promotions of foods high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) instead of introducing the public health (restriction of promotions) bill.

Further to this, the minister also announced plans to halt mandatory restricted age sales for energy drinks as well as stopping plans for hospitality venues having to display calorie information on menus.

In Jenni Minto’s statement it was confirmed that the Scottish Government will no longer introduce the Public Health (Restriction of Promotions) Bill and will now proceed directly to consult on the detail of proposed regulations and plans for implementation this autumn. This means that regulations will be laid sooner than would have otherwise been possible, subject to the outcomes of the consultation. The minister stated this is a more “direct and efficient” route to deliver the policy.

The plans to put calorie information on menus have been paused, while further analysis into the impact of the measure on those with eating disorders is undertaken. Public Health Scotland is expected to publish the results of that work in October.

Jenni Minto also revealed the government will not take forward proposals to ban the sale of energy drinks to under-16s. The minister said that following the consultation on energy drinks, there was not sufficient evidence to introduce a ban on sales to children and the government would instead “continue to support” voluntary measures.

To read the full statement see here.

This notification was received by REHIS and its purpose is to inform you that the Regulations noted below have come into force.

The Regulations provide authorised officers (AO) in food law with an additional enforcement option to rectify any breaches in food information or food composition standards. The Food Scotland Act 2015 s.42 and s.43 gave powers to bring into force the Compliance Notice.

This will allow AOs who carry out official controls in food law, the flexibility to take a more graduated and proportionate approach to enforcing food labelling and composition standards regulations. Before the introduction of this notice, the only formal option AOs had was to submit a report to the Procurator Fiscal, which was found in some incidents to be disproportionate to the breach.

The Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (Compliance Notice) Regulations 2023 have come into force (marketingusercontent.com)

The launch of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme will be delayed until at least October 2025 as a consequence of the UK Government’s refusal to agree a full exclusion from the Internal Market Act, Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater has told Parliament.

The UK Government imposed a number of highly significant conditions on the scheme, including the removal of glass and the requirement to align aspects of the scheme with schemes across the UK – none of which exist at the moment or have regulations in place.

Following consultations with key businesses including producers, Scottish Ministers have concluded that certainty on critical elements of the scheme cannot be provided to businesses until the UK Government publishes more detail and therefore Scotland’s deposit return scheme will not go live until October 2025 at the earliest.

Addressing Parliament on 7th June, Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater said:

“As of today, it is now clear that we have been left with no other option than to delay the launch of Scotland’s DRS, until October 2025 at the earliest based on the UK Government’s current stated aspirations.

“I remain committed to interoperable DRS schemes across the UK provided that we can work in a spirit of collaboration not imposition.  I wrote again last night to the UK Government, to urge ministers to reset a climate of trust and good faith to galvanise and retain the knowledge that has been built in Circularity Scotland and DRS partners in Scotland.

“This Parliament voted for a Deposit Return Scheme. I am committed to a Deposit Return Scheme. Scotland will have a Deposit Return Scheme. It will come later than need be. It will be more limited than it should be. More limited than Parliament voted for.

“These delays and dilutions lie squarely in the hands of UK Government that has sadly seemed so far more intent on sabotaging this parliament than protecting our environment.”

An international team of researchers has discovered that thousands of ambient air quality monitoring stations around the world are doing more than recording just atmospheric pollutants and dust, they are also likely collecting biodiversity data in the form of environmental DNA (eDNA). Until now it was thought that worldwide biodiversity monitoring simply didn’t exist

Until now, no one had considered that these air quality monitoring stations could be collecting and storing eDNA data on birds, bees, ticks, fungi, insects, plants and mammals across the globe as a byproduct of their regular function. But it is exactly what’s needed to monitor biodiversity at a scale that’s never been possible before and could also to potentially tap into the decades of historic eDNA biodiversity data on filters squirrelled away for years.

The discovery came about when researchers, including Joanne Littlefair and York University Assistant Professor Elizabeth Clare, proved that the presence of individual species can be detected by eDNA in the air. That would have been the end of the story, had Dr James Allerton and Dr Andrew Brown, two scientists at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NTL) not seen that research. 

Allerton said: ‘We were routinely collecting particulate matter looking to measure pollutants in air but when we saw the work, we realised maybe we were sitting on something much more valuable.’

After contacting Littlefair and Clare to ask if it was possible their monitors were collecting this information, an experiment was devised. 

An air quality station was set up in a large London park, collecting samples for an hour, a day and a week, and these were compared to eight-month-old samples from a public station in Scotland.

At Queen Mary University of London, Littlefair handled the samples, while Clare and grad student Nina Garrett analysed the data at York.

Elizabeth Clare: ‘We were surprised by the diversity of life we were able to survey with one approach, almost unheard in this field of science. In these two locations, we simultaneously detected the eDNA of 34 bird and 24 mammal species, a wide variety of insects, crops, pathogenic fungus, lovely wildflowers, ornamental garden plants and grasses.

‘We found species of interest, such as hedgehogs, along with badgers, deer, dormice, little owls, smooth newts, songbirds and 80 different kinds of woodland trees and plants – oak, linden, ash, pine – it was all there collected on these tiny filters. It’s unbelievably exciting.’

Dr Andrew Brown: ‘The beauty of the idea is we are making use of something that already exists. If networks of air samplers around the world are all collecting similar material – just as a part of their regular functioning – it’s an incredible resource.’

‘The potential of this cannot be overstated. It could be an absolute gamechanger for tracking and monitoring biodiversity,’ says Dr Joanne Littlefair of Queen Mary University of London and first author of the paper. ‘Almost every country has some kind of air pollution monitoring system or network, either government owned or private, and in many cases both. This could solve a global problem of how to measure biodiversity at a massive scale.’

Read the published paper Air-quality networks collect environmental DNA with the potential to measure biodiversity at continental scales.

The Scottish Government have published the Circular Economy Bill which introduces new powers with to tackle waste and increase reuse and recycling rates.

The Legislation will give Ministers powers to:

• Set local recycling targets, building on the experience of Wales, which has the best recycling rate in the UK
• Set statutory targets for delivery of a circular economy to measure progress in reducing waste and the nation’s carbon footprint
• Ban the disposal of unsold consumer goods, to prevent good products ending up in landfill
• Place charges on single-use items like coffee cups to encourage the move to reusable alternatives

Local authorities will be given additional enforcement powers, allowing them to crack down on flytipping and littering from cars.

The Scottish Government will also work with local authorities to co-design an updated national Code of Practice for household waste recycling, to improve consistency of services and increase the quality and quantity of recycling collected.

Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater said:

“I want everyone in the country to experience a modern, easy to use waste service that makes it easy for people to do the right thing for the planet.

“The Circular Economy Bill with give local Councils and the Scottish Government the powers they need to transform our economy and tackle throwaway culture.

“Of course, the best way of tackling waste is to not create it in the first place. There are huge economic opportunities in the circular economy and we have already seen businesses in Scotland creating jobs by turning what we might otherwise throw away into valuable new products and services.

“This legislation will support the growth of more green businesses and community organisations while cutting waste and climate emissions.”

The Scottish Government have released a consultation which concerns Permitted Development Rights (PDR). The phasing of the PDR programme is kept under review to ensure that it reflects – and helps to promote – wider Scottish Government objectives and priorities. In view of the cost and climate crisis, Phase 3 of the review is primarily focussed on PDR for domestic and non-domestic renewables equipment. This focus reflects the important role that such equipment can play in helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs for households and businesses. Linked to this, Phase 3 also considers PDR associated with the rollout of transmission and distribution infrastructure needed to support the expansion of renewables and to meet increasing demands for electricity.

You can view the consultation here – deadline for comments is 23 August.

Clean Air Day, the UK’s largest campaign on air pollution is happening on Thursday 15 June 2023. The theme is – “Clean up our air to look after your mind this #CleanAirDay”.  

The campaign is focusing on the fact that cleaning up our air is good for us in many ways: it not only benefits our physical health and the environment, but can also protect our mental and brain health. 

To get involved, visit the Clean Air Day website.  

Environmental Standards Scotland has published a video of a lecture by Dr Hans Bruyninckx on The European Green Deal and the Logic of Sustainable Transition.

You can watch the full video here.

Environmental Standards Scotland provides details of their role and current activities on their website, along with recordings of recent lectures/presentations.https://www.environmentalstandards.scot/

Welcome to the May Newsletter.  It has been a hectic month since our last newsletter with our Annual Environmental Health Forum and Scottish Food Safety Registration Board professional interviews taking place.  The Council launched the Strategic Plan for the next three years which features in our Spring Journal, and we have been planning some professional events which are detailed below. 

Congratulations 

The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland congratulates His Majesty King Charles III and Queen Camilla on their Coronation. 

Environmental Health Scotland-The Journal of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland – Spring 2023 



REHIS Spring 2023 edition is now available.

The e-magazine format is openable and readable here.

The PDF version is available here.

REHIS Events

Food Update – Morning of Wednesday 7 June 2023 through MS Teams 

The event programme is available on the website. 

The event is just £50 for members and £100 for non-members. Student members of the Institute can book and attend free of charge. 

Specialist Investigator’s Course – 5 Days from Monday 28 August 2023, in person event, Stirling 

The course will be tailored around the subjects routinely covered by Environmental Health Officers and will include the skills relevant for work in any subject area of the profession. 

The cost for the course is £800 for REHIS members and £1200 for non-members, which includes all course materials, lunch and refreshments. 

 Noise Action Week 22 – 27 May 2023 

About Noise Action Week – Noise Action Week 

UK legislation derived from the EU that was retained on the UK statute book at the point of Brexit will no longer be revoked en masse at the end of this year, the UK government has announced.

The Retained EU Law (Reform and Revocation) Bill (REUL) will be amended, removing a clause that would have scrapped any EU-derived laws that hadn’t already been replaced, repealed, or integrated into UK domestic law by December.   

The REUL, introduced to Parliament in September 2022, initially included a sunset clause, meaning the estimated 4,800 EU-era rules would automatically expired after 31 December – unless ministers had specifically decided to replace or retain them. 

A targeted list of around 600 specific pieces of secondary legislation and EU legislation is expected to be revoked at the end of 2023 instead.

Highland Council has conducted waste composition analysis and discovered that 36% of binned household waste could be recycled or composted.

The analysis was funded by Zero Waste Scotland as part of a national analysis of the waste in household bins across Scotland.

On top of the 36% that could be recycled or composted at home, an additional 25% was food and drink in its packaging or in unopened containers, the majority of which could have been consumed.

The analysis also showed that on average refuse bins also contain glass bottles and jars , garden waste and metal, all of which are widely recycled.

2% of the waste was plastic pots, tubs, and trays – things that can go in the recycling bin when they are clean after a quick wash and dry.

The recycling rate for Highland is 37%. This includes recycling from the kerbside and Household Waste Recycling Centres.

The waste composition analysis was carried out in November 2022 using a sample of households in Contin, Evanton, Dingwall, Inverness and Strathpeffer.

Chairman of Highland Council’s communities and place committee, Graham Mackenzie said: “When we throw food away, it rots and releases methane, a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

“Methane gas has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to the climate crisis.

“Getting as much recycling out of the refuse bin is the next important step as we all work towards a more sustainable waste solution and the funding from the Scottish Government’s Recycling Improvement Fund will certainly help us achieve this when the new refuse and recycling collections are introduced next year.”

Clean Air Day, the UK’s largest campaign on air pollution is happening on Thursday 15 June 2023. The theme is – “Clean up our air to look after your mind this #CleanAirDay”.  

The campaign is focusing on the fact that cleaning up our air is good for us in many ways: it not only benefits our physical health and the environment, but can also protect our mental and brain health. 

This year, REHIS will be supporting Clean Air Day by joining in on their Social Media Campaign.

Several events have been organised across the country including Aberdeen City Council has a Clean Air Day event planned with organisations including: the Cleaner Air for Aberdeen team, the ACC LEZ team, the ACC Hydrogen Project, Big Issue bikes, First Bus, Enterprise Car Club, Energy Savings Trust, Getabout, Sustrans, Original FM Radio, and the Hedge men street entertainers.

They are also organising a poster competition for primary school pupils, with the chance to win a bicycle! The posters will also be displayed at the Aberdeen Science Centre from early July until mid-August. They are also hoping to have Health Walks organised for people to participate in.

Amey Ltd is educating their employers on Clean Air Day in Scotland by refreshing and relaunching their Fuel Efficient Driving Briefs and launching a Green Travel Survey to assess what barriers their employees face in making an eco-friendlier commute. 

They are also hoping to have a Fleet Review undertaken by the Energy Saving Trust that will provide fleet decarbonisation recommendations.

To get involved, visit the Clean Air Day website.