Post-2027 River Basin Management Planning in Scotland

Overview

Our water environment is vital for nature, our health and wellbeing, and our economy; but only when it is allowed to flourish. Protecting and improving the water environment is, therefore, paramount to Scotland’s prosperity and we all have a part to play.

River Basin Management Planning (RBMP) has protected and driven improvements to our water environment over the last two decades. The percentage of water bodies in Good or better condition has increased from 61% in 2008 to 67% in 2024. This has significant benefits, including for biodiversity, and environmental and public health.

Despite significant improvements, we still have work to do. Our water environment remains under threat from a range of pressures. Some are a result of our past, like historic industrial activities or land drainage for agriculture, and others are emerging and increasing such as water scarcity from climate change. Taken together, this means it will become increasingly difficult to protect our water environment, let alone improve it.

It is vital that we protect our water environment from these pressures and take action to reduce them to ensure that we and future generations continue to enjoy its benefits. To do this, action will be required beyond the Water Framework Directive (WFD) deadline of 2027 for meeting the environmental objectives. This consultation, therefore, sets out the:

Background to RBMP and the wider policy context.
Current condition of our water environment and progress towards meeting the environmental objectives of the WFD.
Proposals for maintaining environmental objectives for the condition of Scotland’s water environment post-2027.

Read the consultation paper. The consultation paper contains full background information for this consultation. You may find it useful to read or refer to while responding.

Consultation questions preview Consultation questions preview

The consultation questions are included here for your reference. Please click 'Begin consultation' at the bottom of this page to proceed.

Q1. Are there any other factors that should be considered? If yes, please explain why you think these factors are important, and whether they are particularly relevant to you or your organisation.

Q2. Do you agree with the proposal to set a new environmental objective for 2033, with the possibility of extending this to 2039 or 2045 for water bodies where this is not possible?

Q3. Do you agree that we should keep the current approach to classifying the water environment (e.g. using ‘Good or better overall condition’)?

Q5 Are there additional metrics that you think would be useful to you and/or would help to protect and improve the water environment (e.g. Natural Capital, or catchment resilience)? Please provide details.

Q6. Do you have any other thoughts on the setting of a post-2027 environmental objective?

Q7. Do you have any information (including evidence or examples) that would support the assessment of costs and benefits of setting a new environmental objective set out in the accompanying partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA)?

Q8. Would you be willing to be contacted for further input into the development of a post-2027 environmental objective?

Useful information about responding to this consultation Useful information about responding to this consultation

As you complete your response, each page will provide the option to 'Save and come back later' at the bottom. This means you can save your progress and return to the consultation at any time before it closes. If you don't use this feature and leave the consultation midway through, your response will be lost.

Once you have submitted your response, you can enter your email address to get a pdf copy of your answers sent to you.

On the 'About You' page at the end of this consultation, organisations will have the opportunity to tell us more about their work and/or how their response was informed.

After the consultation has closed there will be a few months delay before any responses are published. This is because we must check any responses to be published abide by our Terms of Use.

All relevant submitted responses will be analysed. This may be carried out by third party organisations who Scottish Government, its executive agencies or non-ministerial offices, contract to do this work. Such data sharing will be governed by appropriate contractual arrangements to keep your data secure.

An analysis report will usually be published some months after the consultation has closed. This report will summarise the findings based on all responses submitted. It will be published on the Scottish Government website and you may be notified about it if you choose to share your email address with us.

You can also join our consultation mailing list where we regularly list newly published analysis reports (as well as new consultations).

Why your views matter

Responses to this consultation will inform the development of the next River Basin Management Plan for Scotland, and future water environment policy development.

Give us your views

This activity will open on 18 Nov 2025. Please come back on or after this date to give us your views.

Interests

Environment and Climate Change
Farming and Rural
Main hub
Marine and Fisheries