Publication - Progress report
Scottish National Adaptation Plan Annual Report 2025-2026
The annual progress report setting out the delivery record over the past 12 months of the Scottish National Adaptation Plan
Annex A : Summary of Indicators
Summary table
| Indicator | Ambition | Actual trend | Observations |
|---|---|---|---|
| NC1.1 – Extent of green-blue land cover in urban areas | Increasing / improving trend | Increasing / improving trend | In 2025 there were 260.9659 (km²) of greenspace in urban areas in Scotland, representing a slight increase of 0.56% from the previous year. This highlights an increase over time since 2019, when there was 242.2748 (km²) of urban greenspace. |
| NC1.2 – Proportion of adults who live withing a five-minute walk of their nearest green or blue space | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | The percentage of respondents who reported living within a 5-minute walk of their nearest green or blue space increased very slightly between 2023 and 2024 (from 68% to 70%). Overall, in the period 2019 to 2024, the trend has been broadly flat, with this figure consistently lying between 66% and 70% each year. |
| NC2.1 – Newly protected land and marine features | Increasing / improving trend | Increasing / improving trend | In 2025, an additional 3915.98 hectares were protected. Two terrestrial SSSI's were merged and extend with the net creation of 186.96 hectares of protected areas. The remaining 3729.02 hectares are from the creation of the first four terrestrial OECM's. There were no changes to the area of marine or mixed sites protected in Scotland. |
| NC2.2 – Hectares of Scotland’s protected features in favourable Condition | Increasing / improving trend | Maintaining trend | At March 31st, 2026, 74.5% of Scotland’s protected site features were in favourable condition. The indicator is stable (less than 1% variation) compared to 2025 but has declined consistently since 2019. Further years of data will be requires to assess this trend from 2024 and the post-SNAP3 period onwards. |
| NC3.1 – Number of Local Development Plans adopted by local authorities since National Planning Framework 4 publication | Increasing / improving trend | Maintaining trend | All Local Authorities have started preparation of their new style LDPs with a majority expecting to adopt their plans during 2027. A second update provided in March 2026 indicated that 13 authorities are projected to adopt their new plans after the target date of May 2028. |
| NC4.1 – Number of nature networks across Scotland | Increasing / improving trend | Increasing / improving trend | As of March 2026, 12 (36%) of 32 Local Authorities have either shared for advice, or published publicly, draft spatially identified Nature Networks across their local authority area. |
| NC4.2 – Abundance of terrestrial species | Increasing / improving trend or Maintaining trend | Too early to say | From 1994 to 2019, the average abundance of 337 species of bird, mammals, butterflies and moths was stable. Average abundance shows peaks in 1995, 2004, 2010 and 2019. Between 2016 and 2019 the average abundance of terrestrial species increased by 14 percentage points. |
| NC4.3 – Occupancy of terrestrial species | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | Species occupancy represents the number of sites where a species is present. From 1994 to 2016, the average occupancy of 2,466 species of invertebrate, lichen and bryophyte increased by 24%. Between 2015 and 2016 the indicator was stable. |
| NC5.1 – Abundance of marine species | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | From 1994 to 2019, the average abundance of 14 species of breeding seabird fell by 41%, with most of the decline occurring between 2000 and 2010. Between 2016 and 2019 the indicator declined by 8%. |
| NC6.1 – Hectares of restored peatland | Increasing / improving trend or Maintaining trend | Increasing / improving trend | The area of peatland restored in each year has increased since 2021-22. 5,631 hectares of peatland were restored in 2021-22, with this rising to 14,918 in 2024-25 and 15,448 in 2025-26. |
| NC6.2 – Woodland creation | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | While too early to report confidently on a trend, data this year highlights a reduction in the hectares of woodland created in 2024/25 when compared to 2023/24. In total, Scotland created 8,470 hectares of new forest or woodland, representing 54% of all UK new woodland creation. 5,300 hectares of native woodlands were created. Despite leading the UK in woodland creation, Scotland fell short of its broader targets: 10,000 hectares under the PfG and 18,000 hectares under the Climate Change Plan for 2024/25. This shortfall is being attributed to budget reductions in the previous year |
| NC6.3 – Area of forest and woodland registered under the Woodland Carbon Code | Increasing / improving trend | Increasing / improving trend | The area of forest and woodland registered under the Woodland Carbon Code has continued to increase year on year. There was a steep rise between 2021 and 2022 from 25,186 hectares to 49,563 hectares. The total hectares covered increased from 66,929 hectares in 2024 to 75,741 by 2025. The total number of projects has fallen slightly since 2024 (from 914 in 2024 to 911 in 2025). This decrease is due to the merging of some smaller projects, rather than representing a decrease in activity |
| Indicator | Ambition | Actual trend | Observations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1.1 – Geographical coverage of regional adaptation collaboration | Increasing / improving trend | Increasing / improving trend | As of April 2026, 26 of 32 local authorities are covered by active adaptation partnerships or collaborations. This represents 81% of local authorities in Scotland, and an increase from 21 active partnerships reported in March 2025 (66% of local authorities in Scotland). | |
| C2.1 – Proportion of adults viewing climate change as an immediate and urgent problem | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | In 2023, 74% of adults agreed that ‘climate change is an immediate and urgent problem’. There was no change in this figure between 2022 and 2023. However, the figure maintaining at 74% represents a marked increase from 2013 (46%), the first data point in this time series. Since data for this indicator has not been updated since 2023, it is too early to report on the trend since SNAP3 implementation in 2024. | |
| C2.2 – Level of adaptation action being taken by people in Scotland | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | Data from the 2024 Scottish Climate Survey highlights that more than seven in ten (72%) of adults in Scotland reported taking at least one of the actions highlighted to support personal, household and/or community level adaptation.
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| C3.1 – Number of people using flood forecasting and warning services | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | In 2025, SEPA had 472,325 views to their flood related SEPA websites, compared to 896,038 in 2024. This included 49,455 views to Scottish Flood Forecast, 96,043 views to SEPA Scot flooding, and 326,827 views to SEPA Org Live Flood updates. Significantly less flood warning messages were issued (55% reduction) by SEPA in 2025 compared to 2024. Despite this, at the end of 2025, 42,178 people were registered on the Floodline service, a 0.9% overall increase on 2024. | |
| C3.2 – Proportion of adults who would offer support to people in their community during an emergency, such as a flood, who may not cope well | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | This indicator has remained broadly stable over time since 2019. Trend data is not yet available since the publication of SNAP3 in 2024. In 2024, 89% of adults in Scotland reported that they would offer support to people in their community during an emergency, such as a flood, who may not cope well. | |
| C3.3 – Availability of flood insurance | Maintaining trend | Maintaining trend | The proportion of high risk households able to access quotes from insurers has remained broadly stable since 2024. 98% of high-risk households with claims were able to obtain 5 or more quotes from insurers through the Flood Re scheme in 2025. This compares to 99% in 2024. | |
| C4.1 – Proportion of dwellings with urgent disrepair to critical elements | Decreasing / worsening trend | Maintaining trend | There proportion of dwellings with urgent disrepair to critical elements has remained broadly stable since 2019. Trend data is not yet available since the publication of SNAP3 in 2024. In 2019, an estimated 19% of dwellings had urgent disrepair to critical elements. The same proportion (19%) were found to have urgent disrepair to critical elements in 2024. | |
| C5.1 – Historic Environment Scotland grant applications including adaptation measures | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | In 2024-25, 25 of 62 (40%) grant applications referenced climate change. In 2025-26, this figure increased to 88 of 91 (97%) grant applications. | |
| C6.1 – Number of local authority Coastal Change Adaptation Plans published | Increasing / improving trend | Increasing / improving trend | Coastal Change Adaptation Plan guidance was published in February 2023. Since then, three local authorities have published a CCAP. An additional fourteen local authorities are currently working on a CCAP. | |
| Indicator | Ambition | Actual trend | Observations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS1.1 – Level of risk assessment reported across the public sector | Increasing / improving trend | Increasing / improving trend | The proportion of public bodies having undertaken some form of risk assessment has increased over time. In 2021-22 more than a third (34%) had not undertaken any risk assessment. By 2024-25 fewer bodies (25%) reported not having undertaken any risk assessment and a majority (37%) reported undertaking a limited risk assessment. Since 2023/24 there has been a slight rise in those reporting undertaking a comprehensive or advanced risk assessment. 32% of public bodies had undertaken this level of risk assessment in 2023/24, compared to 38% in 2024/25. | |
| PS1.2 – Level of adaptation action taken across the public sector | Increasing / improving trend | Increasing / improving trend | There have been minor shifts across categories since 2023/24, indicating some improvement overall, and with more bodies undertaking comprehensive and advanced action (33% undertaking this in 2024/25 compared to 27% in 2023/24). The share of bodies rated as having taken no action remains static at 26%. The proportion of those reporting haven taken comprehensive action has increased from 20% in 2023/24 to 24% in 2024/25. Around two-fifths (42%) continue to be rated as only taking limited action. | |
| PS3.1 – Average per household water consumption | Decreasing / worsening trend | Decreasing / worsening trend | The 2024/25 Per Household Consumption value for unmeasured properties of 356.92 l/prop/ day, excluding underground supply pipe leakage, is down by 0.44% from 358.48 l/prop/day in 2023/24. Cooler summer temperatures may have contributed to the fall. | |
| PS3.2 – Number of properties sewer flooded during the year due to severe weather | Maintaining trend | Too early to say | The were fewer instances of sewer flooding due to severe weather in 2024/25, compared with 2023/34, which may have been due to fewer high intensity storms. The number of properties affected per incident has also decreased, further indicating that rainfall severity has been less in comparison to 2023/24. It is currently too early to report on a trend for this indicator due to the variation in rainfall experienced in each year. Longer term time-series data will be required to assess the trend. | |
| PS4.1 – Number of ferry service cancellations | Decreasing / worsening trend | Too early to say | In 2024-25 there were 6,425 weather related ferry service cancellations. This was a decrease from the previous year (2024-25) when 6,786 ferry services were cancelled in relation to weather conditions. Data around weather related ferry service cancellations are sensitive to frequency of severe weather events such as storms in a given year. A longer time series will be required to report on trends in ferry service resilience. | |
| PS4.2 – Proportion of trunk roads which require close monitoring | Decreasing / worsening trend | Too early to say | In 2023-24 the proportion of trunk roads which require close monitoring of the state of the road surface in Scotland were as follows:
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| PS4.3 – Proportion of Local Authority roads which may require maintenance | Decreasing / worsening trend | Maintaining trend | Across local authority level roads, the proportion which may require maintenance has stayed fairly consistent since 2019-20. In 2024-25 34% of local authority roads were rated as red or amber condition in the Scottish Road Maintenance Survey, consistent with the level reported in 2023/24. | |
| PS4.4 – Number of weather related train delays | Decreasing / worsening trend | Too early to say | In 2025-26 there were 127,565 minutes of weather related train delays in Scotland. This figure remains higher than in 2020, although train services were operating a reduced timetable during the Covid pandemic. Data around weather related train delays is sensitive to frequency of severe weather events such as storms in a given year. A longer time series will be required to report on trends in train service resilience since the SNAP3 baseline in 2024. | |
| Indicator | Ambition | Actual trend | Observations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1.1 – Businesses monitoring climate related risks | Increasing / improving trend | Maintaining trend | In 2025, 21.6% of businesses reported that they had assessed climate change related risks, broadly in line with 22.9% reporting this in 2024. | |
| B1.2 – Businesses taking action to adapt to the effects of climate change | Increasing / improving trend | Maintaining trend | In 2025, 15.9% of businesses reported that they had taken action to adapt to climate change, in line with 15.2% in 2024. | |
| B2.1 – Proportion of agricultural land under management under AgriEnvironment Climate Scheme | Increasing / improving trend | Too early to say | In 2025, 832,894 hectares of agricultural land were managed under the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) contracts for the options included in the indicator (all options measured in hectares through the scheme, including the organic conversion and maintenance options). This represents a similar proportion of the total agricultural land covered under contracts since 2024 (16.6% in 2025 compared to 16.5% in 2024). | |
| B2.2 – Proportion of Forest Plans revised under the new edition of the UKFS | Ensure all future approved plans and amendments comply with the new edition of UKFS after the ‘go-live’ date in October 2024 | Too early to say | Scottish Forestry approvals have required compliance with the updated standard from 1st October 2024. A transition period has been adopted between 1st October 2024 and the 1st March 2025 to allow for plans under contract from before the 1st October 2024 to be completed. Recording of data for this indicator began on 1st April 2025, the full year's data (01/04/2025 - 31/03/2026) will not be collated until October 2026. | |
| B2.3 – Commercial fish stocks fished at sustainable levels | Increasing / improving trend or Maintaing trend | Too early to say | The index of sustainable fishing in Scotland stood at 68.81% in 2024, which represents a small decrease from the 2023 value (75.56%) but a significant increase from the time series minimum (40.89% in 1999). Trend data will be reported on once 2025 figures are available. | |
| B2.4 – Tonnage and value of fish stocks landed | Increasing / improving trend or Maintaing trend | Increasing / improving trend | In 2024, 532,094 tonnes of fish was landed by Scottish vessels, the greatest tonnage of the last ten years. The value of these landings in 2024 was £734 million. This is the highest value (adjusted to 2024 prices) of the last ten years. | |
| B2.5 – Operating profits for fishing fleets | Increasing / improving trend or Maintaing trend | Increasing / improving trend | Average real operating profits per vessel continued to increase in Scotland in 2024, rising to £165,000, following a relatively stable period between 2019 and 2022, when average profits fluctuated between £109,000 and £123,000 (in 2024 prices). Growth began to pick up in 2023 and accelerated further in 2024, which recorded the highest level of average operating profit, in real terms, across the 2019-2024 period. | |
| B2.6 – Survival to harvest of salmon smolts put to sea [49] | Maintaining trend | Too early to say | 61.8% of the 2022 yearclass of salmon within seawater production survived to harvest, down from 68.7% of the 2021 yearclass. Due to the underlying methodology, the 2022 yearclass is the last one for which the indicator can be calculated. | |
| B4.1 – Reported disruption to supply chains as a result of severe weather event | Decreasing / worsening trend | Maintaining trend | In 2025, 15.1% of businesses impacted by severe weather reported disruption to local supply chains as a result, in line with 15.8% reporting this in 2024. In 2025, 4.0% of businesses impacted by severe weather reported disruption to global supply chains as a result, broadly in line with 6.4% in 2024. | |