A Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland: Mid-point review of progress toward achieving actions
The updated Marine Litter Strategy was published in 2022. A mid-point review of the action plan was conducted in 2025, assessing progress on all actions.
Mid-point review of progress toward achieving actions
Background
Marine litter poses a number of problems across the environment, economy and society. These detrimental effects include damage to marine wildlife, as well as wider ecosystem deterioration, public health issues, impacts on aesthetics, and a wider range of economic impacts across industries reliant on our coastal and marine environment.
Marine litter threatens the realisation of a shared vision for 'clean, healthy, safe, productive, and biologically diverse marine and coastal environments, managed to meet the long term needs of nature and people'. It may also impact upon Scotland's plans to deliver a wealthier, fairer, and greener Scotland.
A Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland (MLS) was published in 2014 and set out a co-ordinated approach to address the amount of litter entering the marine environment, to achieve ecological, economic and social benefits. The strategy was subsequently reviewed, and the updated strategy and action plan was published on 28 September 2022[1].
The updated strategy contains multiple actions on the most problematic types of marine litter including fishing and aquaculture gear, sewage-related debris, and plastic pellets. The strategy is driving forward our work from 2022 to 2027 and co-ordinates the efforts of our stakeholders and partners.
The Marine Litter Strategy Steering Group (MLSSG)[2] oversees and co-ordinates delivery of the action points identified in the strategy. They supported the work to review and update the strategy in 2022, and agreed that a mid-point review would be desirable.
The action plan[3] is divided into five separate themes, or ‘strategic directions’, including reducing sources of litter, supporting the removal of litter, and monitoring. The current action plan includes 34 actions. This is a live document, and as part of the mid-point review the action plan will be updated if necessary.
Aim
This mid-point review aimed to assess the progress to date on actions within the strategy, and the likelihood that they will be completed by the end of 2027, providing an opportunity for change should any new actions or changes to timescales be required.
Objective
The review considered the SMART[4] objectives of each action, its timescales, resource capacity and budget terms. As each action has a responsible lead organisation with an agreed target timescale for completion (short, medium, or long term), progress reports could be provided. The actions would be reviewed against the SMART criteria, and any newly added actions would have to meet the same stipulations.
Methodology
MLSSG meetings are held three times per year, and at each meeting those who are leading on actions give updates on their progress. The Scottish Government has kept a running log of progress to date from these meetings, and this was used as the basis of the mid-point review, which commenced in Spring 2025. From this, a brief commentary was added to each action on status toward completion, noting achievements and milestones. In addition, each action was categorised as: completed; on track for completion; some delay or change / partially completed; or, unlikely to be achieved before the end of the strategy lifespan.
This summary was circulated to the MLSSG and was discussed at the next planned meeting, in March 2025. The group was asked to provide feedback and comments in writing. Those leading on actions were asked to provide any further progress updates and any adjustments to the categorisation of their actions.
Following this, a finalised version of the summary review was produced, incorporating all comments and views received, and with queries answered. This was circulated to the group, and a final discussion was held at the following meeting in June 2025. At this meeting the group agreed to the finalised version. It was agreed that a short report would be produced and would be published alongside the review of the action plan.
Results
The action plan as originally published in 2022 contains 34 separate actions. Table 1 outlines the four categories toward completion used in this review, and the number of actions under each strategic direction and their status.
|
Status of actions |
Completed |
On track for completion |
Some delay or change / partially completed |
Unlikely to be achieved before the end of the strategy lifespan |
Overall total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Strategic Direction 1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
n/a |
|
Strategic Direction 2 |
5 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
n/a |
|
Strategic Direction 3 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
n/a |
|
Strategic Direction 4 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
n/a |
|
Strategic Direction 5 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
n/a |
|
Totals |
10 |
18 |
5 |
1 |
34 |
The MLSSG is in agreement that the strategy is making good progress on actions overall, with 10 already completed and 18 regarded as on track for completion within the timescales allotted. Please see the supporting document (Excel) for the review of the entire action plan.
Completed actions
The 10 completed actions include: contributing to the development and publication of a standard for the circular design of fishing and aquaculture gear, to improve waste management and reduce environmental impact; increased monitoring at Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) by the installation of 1000 event duration monitoring facilities; the design of 85 solutions at CSOs identified as high priority due to environmental impacts of sewage-related debris during spill events; a 50% increase in the number of vessels participating in the Fishing for Litter scheme, bringing litter caught during fishing activities back to harbour for correct disposal.
Actions on track for completion
The 18 actions which are on track for completion include: co-ordination between the teams working on MLS and the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy to strengthen the enforcement of litter and flytipping regulations, with relevant actions within the Circular Economy Act being implemented from 2025-26; the development and ongoing running of the ‘Nature Calls’ public awareness campaign; the completion of a review of an international plastic pellet certification scheme, with the report to be published in 2026; the continued expansion around Scotland of the Upstream Battle riverine litter project; the completion of a pilot study and the ongoing monitoring programme for beach litter on Scottish islands.
Delayed actions
Five actions have seen some delay or necessary change, or are partially completed. These actions have been categorised as delayed because they are not likely to be completed within the original timescales given, but it is deemed they will be completed by the end of 2027 i.e. within the lifespan of the action plan. These include: while some work has been completed regarding improved methods for collecting and recycling end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear, some other aspects have been delayed, and progress will now continue into 2026 and onwards; a suitable location was thought to be identified for the stage one action for the litter boom on the River Clyde, however this has subsequently been identified as not viable, which means other methods or locations will have to be considered, causing a delay to this action.
Actions unlikely to be achieved
One action within Strategic Direction 3 has been identified as unlikely to be achieved and it has been agreed this will be removed from the action plan. This is the stage two action relating to the litter boom on the River Clyde, namely: using the monitoring outputs from stage one, explore technologies to remove waste continually from the river in conjunction with the litter boom. The MLSSG has noted that stage two cannot proceed without stage one being competed, i.e. the litter boom being in place in the river, which as outlined above, has been delayed. There is sufficient time left within the lifespan of the strategy for stage one to be completed, but not sufficient time for stage two to be completed.
No other suggestions for removing actions were made.
New actions
It has been agreed that one action will be added. Scottish Government suggested that following on from the completed action noted above, the design of 85 solutions at CSOs, there would be a further relevant action that was already planned and costed but not originally included in the strategy. This action is the installation of the 85 solutions at CSOs. This action has been added to Strategic Direction 2.
No other suggestions for including new actions were made.
Some more general queries were raised within the review process, which were answered either by Scottish Government or the relevant partner organisation within MLSSG. These queries did not warrant new actions to be added, nor were new actions requested around these.
Conclusion
The MLSSG is in agreement that the strategy is making good progress on actions overall. 10 actions are completed and 18 are regarded as on track for completion within the timescales allotted. Five have been delayed or partially completed, but will be completed by the end of 2027, and only one has been identified as unlikely to be achieved.
With the addition of one new action, and the deletion of the one action identified as unlikely to be achieved, the action plan will remain at a total of 34 actions.
Next steps
The action plan is a live document, and an updated version reflecting these two changes will be published alongside the strategy document at A Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland. The work of the MLSSG will continue to be guided by the action plan.
A final review of the current strategy will be conducted after the action plan has concluded at the end of 2027. The strategy will at that point be reviewed and a new iteration of the action plan will be drawn up to enable the continuation of work beyond the end of 2027.