Water Quality Regulator says “Scotland’s drinking water remains amongst the best in the world, but improvement is required to reduce avoidable incidents’’
Scotland’s drinking water is world class, with more than 99.9% of tests meeting regulatory standards.
But the Drinking Water Quality Regulator says a rise in avoidable incidents and complaints about discoloured water shows that further improvements are needed to maintain public confidence.
David Reynolds, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator said: “Whilst consumers can remain confident that Scotland’s drinking water is safe and of a very high quality, too many short-lived incidents that affect customers could have been prevented, and that’s an area where I need to see real improvement.
‘’Consumers rightly expect their tap water to look, taste and smell good. While the vast majority receive excellent quality drinking water every day, incidents of discoloured water continue to affect some customers. Addressing this issue is important to maintaining public trust and confidence in Scotland’s drinking water supplies’’.
The report, covering Drinking Water Quality in Scotland during 2025, states that a total of 137,947 regulatory tests were carried out on samples taken from consumers’ taps, and 99.88% of these met the required standards. This is a slight reduction in performance compared to 2024.
22 out of 62,134 tests on samples of water leaving water treatment works failed to meet standards which is comparable to recent years.
Scottish Water received 17,558 complaints from consumers about the quality of their drinking water in 2025 which is a 5% increase on 2024. Most of these complaints were in connection with the supply of discoloured water.
The number of water quality incidents requiring detailed investigation by the DWQR during 2025 was 36, compared with 34 in the previous year, a figure the Regulator considers too high.
A full copy of Drinking Water Quality in Scotland 2025 is available at www.dwqr.org.uk
