Alex Cole-Hamilton accuses John Swinney of complacency over sewage problem affecting North Berwick and River Almond

Scottish Lib Dem leader and Edinburgh Western MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton used First Minister's Questions to highlight thousands of complaints from members of the public about sewage, including "“Sanitary towels and wet wipes on the beach at North Berwick" and "the River Almond making swimmers sick".

He said: Songs were written about Scotland being the 'land of the shining river'. Does the First Minister mind that his Government’s own water company is dumping so much sewage into it?"

Mr Swinney replied: "On the question of water quality, I note that 87 per cent of Scotland’s entire water environment is assessed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency as having a high or good classification, an increase from 82 per cent in 2014."

But Mr Cole-Hamilton hit back: "The complacency in the First Minister’s answer suggests that he is content with the situation as it is. The European Court of Justice has ruled that sewage dumping should happen only in exceptional circumstances, but it is happening all the time and almost everywhere, even on dry days. Last year, Scottish Water dumped sewage at least 24,500 times, but the lack of monitoring means that we know about only a fraction of what is really going on."

He said Scottish Lib Dems wanted a clean water act to tackle the issue. "Last week, Thames Water got fined £100 million for sewage dumping, but there are never any consequences here in Scotland."

But Mr Swinney responded: The privatisation of water in England has been an unmitigated disaster for the people of England and Wales, and I thank our predecessors for not taking such a foolish decision in the first place.

"We operate in a situation that is not perfect, but in which we have a high level of performance in relation to the quality of our natural environment.

“I do not think that it is a good advert for Mr Cole-Hamilton to undermine the strength of the natural environment of Scotland when we are spending £500 million on improving water quality in Scotland, and then to compare Scotland’s water—an asset to our country—to the folly that is privatisation in England and Wales."