• Baxter to lead debate on wildfires in Scottish Parliament
• Cole-Hamilton sets out expectations for Programme for Government
• New record for sewage: Over 100,000 “disgusting” sewage dumps in 2025
• Harley responds to hospital flow plan

Baxter to lead debate on wildfires in Scottish Parliament

As parliament returns from its summer recess, Scottish Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesperson Andrew Baxter will lead a debate on wildfires, following the devastating blaze that raged across the Cairngorms for more than a month.

On Tuesday, MSPs will debate a motion brought forward by the Scottish Liberal Democrat member for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch.

As well as recognising the increasing threat of wildfires in Scotland, the motion highlights the Scottish Government’s flawed response to the Cairngorms blaze.

More than 2,500 hectares of moorland and forest were destroyed in the fire. It led to the evacuation of residents in Nethy Bridge, with smoke spreading all the way out to Aberdeen.

Ministers delayed chairing of the meeting of their Resilience Room, convened at times of emergency, by more than a week. When it was eventually held, the SNP government refused an offer of UK military support to help tackle the wildfire.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have also published a dossier exposing the state of the country’s fire service.

This revealed that:

• Scottish Fire and Rescue had to pay almost £6 million in overtime payments last year, up by a third in the last five years from £4.5 million in 2021/22.
• Mental health absences have skyrocketed, from 4,219 days lost in 2021/22 to 12,132 days in 2025/26.
• Almost a third of full-time equivalent retained firefighter posts are unfilled.

Scottish Liberal Democrats are calling for a cross-party summit to learn the lessons of the response to the Cairngorms wildfire and to ensure that there is a concrete action plan going forward.

Commenting ahead of the debate, Andrew Baxter MSP said:

The Cairngorms wildfire has left an apocalyptic and desolate imprint on one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

It was not a one-off, freak weather event. Wildfires are now happening annually in Scotland; we need a government that is far more prepared, far more proactive when the next one inevitably strikes.

The Cairngorms fire was also the first major test of the new action plan that the government paraded earlier this year, but the unacceptable failings of their response show that this plan must be looked at again.

It’s also clear that the fire service doesn’t have the resources it desperately needs to deal with the growing threat of wildfires. Mental health absences among staff and a burgeoning overtime bill are only making things worse.

I hope that the Scottish Government agrees to our call for a cross-party summit. That’s the first, essential step in working with fire teams, local authorities, farmers, gamekeepers, businesses and more to prevent a devastating repeat of this summer.

Cole-Hamilton sets out expectations for Programme for Government

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said that the First Minister should be focused on four key areas in his programme for government: delivering first-rate healthcare, help with the cost of living, getting Scotland’s roads and ferries moving and returning Scottish education to its best.

Alex Cole-Hamilton is urging the First Minister to focus on:

• Fixing social care to fix the NHS and recruiting more specialist staff into GP surgeries to ease their workload and get patients seen quicker.
• Helping people with the cost of living by insulating cold homes with an emergency insulation programme, using Scottish renewable energy to drive down bills and increasing support for unpaid carers.
• Driving progress on major projects such as dualling the A9 and tunnels for Shetland and passing a Ferries Bill that will end the ferries fiasco for good.
• Getting Scottish education back to its best by hiring more pupil support assistants and banning phones from schools.

Reports estimate that the SNP have failed to meet around one fifth of the pledges they vowed to complete within 100 days of a new government.

This includes watering down the promised £10 million that island and coastal communities deserve now for the disruption caused by the SNP’s ferries fiasco.

Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

Scotland is a country packed with talent, aspiration and creativity- it deserves a government that will mirror that ambition.

John Swinney has broken his promise to deliver on many of the glitzy things he said would happen in the first 100 days of an SNP government.

If his programme for government is to be any different, it must recognise the importance of social care in fixing our NHS. It must use all the levers at the Scottish Government’s disposal to cut the cost of living and bring down bills. It must be serious about finally dualling the A9, about ending the SNP’s ferries fiasco, about eradicating men’s violence against women and girls, taking mobile phones out of schools and returning Scottish education to its best.

Scottish Liberal Democrats took a massive leap forward at this year’s election. In every corner of the country, people put their faith in us to represent them on the issues that matter.

From the opposition benches, we are ready to provide strong, intelligent and measured criticism, finding common ground where we can, to get things done for the people of Scotland.

New record for sewage: Over 100,000 “disgusting” sewage dumps in 2025

Scottish Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Sanne Dijkstra-Downie has today demanded that the SNP start taking the sewage crisis seriously as new Scottish Water monitoring revealed that sewage discharges last year were four times as high as previously recorded.

This comes after Scottish Water published data from 1,009 newly installed sewage overflow monitors, which means annual monitoring data is now available for 30% of sites, compared to 6% in previous years.

The figures published today by the government-owned water company show that in 2025 alone:

• 100,041 discharges were logged, up from 24,398 incidents in 2024 – a new record
• Sewage was dumped for a total of 276,755 hours in 2025
• That equates to more than 758 hours of sewage dumping a day.

This latest revelation about Scotland’s sewage crisis comes after ‘sewage sleuth’ Peter Hammond, portrayed by Jason Watkins in the Channel 4 TV show Dirty Business, published analysis showing that nearly 90% of sewage dumps in Scotland could be illegal.

Scottish Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Sanne Dijkstra-Downie said:

It’s horrific to find out that sewage dumping is four times as high as we thought it was last year. This shows the Scottish Liberal Democrats were right to call for expanded monitoring and exposes how naive SNP ministers have been.

This is the equivalent of 274 dumps taking place every single day.

Yet even that number is likely an underestimate of the true scale of the problem. Even with these extra monitors Scotland is still way behind England where 100% of sewage overflows are monitored.

To make matters worse, the government owned water company is paying out bumper bonuses to its executives while sewage is being dumped into our rivers, lochs and beaches more than 100,000 times in 2025.

We have now heard warnings about the sewage crisis in Scotland from both the government’s own watchdog and ‘sewage sleuth’ Peter Hammond. The Scottish Government needs to start listening to them and taking this crisis seriously.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have a plan to get to the bottom of this filthy practice. That means a Clean Water Act to take the sewage scandal seriously, track down and report every sewage dump, and replace outdated standards with modern enforceable regulation.

Harley responds to hospital flow plan

Responding to the Scottish Government publishing a plan for hospital pressures, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Adam Harley MSP said:

Patients should receive the care that is right for them.

There is a risk that this plan does not address the underlying cause of hospital pressure.

Ultimately, the only way to do that is to fix the crisis in social care, which is causing 2,000 patients every month to be delayed in leaving hospital.