REHIS News

A £7.5 million project between the public and private sectors has been established to deliver more electric vehicle charging points across the north of Scotland.

As part of the project, SSEN will examine what electricity network infrastructure will be required to support the increasing number of people travelling to the north of Scotland by electric vehicles. Infrastructure needs for new charging points along the route of the Electric A9 will be also be identified and mapped.

Scotland is performing well on air quality by both EU and global standards, an independent review has found.

The report, published by the Scottish Government, is a review of the 2015 Cleaner Air for Scotland Strategy. It was produced by a national cross-government steering group of 10 experts, chaired by Professor Campbell Gemmell, with contributions from representatives from REHIS.

The report assess progress against the Strategy and also made recommendations on how to maintain this.

Resource Efficient Scotland have designed free packs which include a great range of posters, stickers, thermometers and other communication materials to help businesses encourage their staff to become more resource efficient.  

Resource Efficient Scotland already provides lots of free support and funding to help businesses use less energy, water and materials – and save money. 

But did you know that one of the quickest ways for any business to become more resource efficient is to simply motivate staff to adopt better behaviours? 

National Records of Scotland (NRS) figures show link between deprivation and health. 

A boy born in 2018 in one of the 10% most deprived areas of Scotland will live for 13 years less than a boy from the most affluent areas. The gap for girls is 9.6 years. 

There is clear evidence in the data tables published by NRS of the reason for this. A boy born in the poorer areas can expect to spend almost a third of his life (29.2%) in poor health.  While, for girls it is 34.5%. 

Glasgow will host a major United Nations climate change summit next year, if a UK bid is successful.

The UK and Italy have lodged a joint bid to host the 26th Conference of the Parties, known as COP26. It has been proposed that the UK would host the main conference, with a preliminary meeting held in Italy.

While Turkey is still in the running for the event, the UK is now seen as the clear favourite.

A demonstration version of the new LymeApp has been launched at an event in Inverness. It has been created to map where ticks bites and Lyme disease have been detected.

The £1.1 million project will allow members of the public to report tick sightings and bites and help scientists monitor cases of Lyme disease.

Developed by International Disease Mapping Apps, a new company formed by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), LymeApp uses satellite data to highlight where the disease has been detected across the northern hemisphere.

Members of the Scottish Obesity Alliance have written to the First Minister to urge the Scottish Government to restrict price promotions on food and drink products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS).

The letter, calls on the First Minister to take action and commit to legislation to regulate multi-buy price promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar and salt in Scotland in this autumn’s Programme for Government.

Three years after the measles virus was eliminated from the UK, the country has lost its “measles-free” status with the World Health Organization.

The UK initially achieved WHO measles elimination status in 2017, based on data from 2014-2016.

However, in 2018, there was a marked increase in the number of confirmed measles cases, with 991 confirmed cases in England and Wales, compared with 284 cases in 2017.  

The latest annual report issued by the Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR) for Scotland’s shows that Scottish Water’s compliance with the stringent standards for drinking water is high at 99.90%.

In 2018, a total of 319,124 regulatory tests were carried out in on Scotland’s drinking water. Of those taken from samples at consumers’ taps, 99.90% met the required standards, slightly reduced on previous years. Scottish Water take and analyse samples of drinking water from across Scotland 365 days a year.

Publicly funded leisure centres in all local authorities in Scotland have now banned the sale of high-energy soft drinks to young people under the age of 16.

The restriction will apply to soft drinks with an added caffeine content of more than 150mg per litre.

Community Leisure UK, the umbrella body for over 85% of Scotland’s publicly funded leisure and cultural facilities, has worked with the Scottish Government to introduce the restriction in the 1,300 facilities they represent.