Question reference: S5W-34178
- Asked by: John Finnie, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 18 December 2020
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Current status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 18 January 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will examine making the provision of an assessed number of suitable public conveniences a statutory local authority duty, and ensure that necessary funding is made available to councils to address a reported shortage of this public health resource.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not have direct responsibility for public toilets. The responsibility for public conveniences rests with the owner, which can be a variety of different bodies, such as local authorities, businesses, community organisations and tourist boards. The majority of public conveniences in Scotland are under private ownership, for example in shopping centres, rather than under local authority control.
At a summit on 14 September, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Tourism met with a number of public bodies and national park authorities and asked that they examine potential solutions to tackling visitor management issues across Scotland. This group are exploring how they might make better use of collective public sector resource.
As well as this, the Scottish Government are also forecasting the continuation of the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund into 2021-22, which will complement the work of this group. So far the fund has contributed £9m over 3 years, levering in match funding, to support the installation of car parks, toilets and waste disposal facilities in rural hotspots.