Our latest investigation has found the financial rewards of Scotland’s energy transition are being unevenly distributed. The money earned by landowners often dwarfs the payments that wind farm developers make to local communities.
Rob has more than 40 years’ experience specialising in reporting on environmental issues. He has co-authored three books about nuclear power, produced radio and television programmes. He likes muckraking.
The UK Information Commissioner is facing criticism for endorsing the Ministry of Defence’s insistence on concealing issues with nuclear weapons because of growing threats from other countries. Secrecy allows “fake news” to fester, say campaigners.
Lochs are classified as having a “good” environmental status based on samples from other lochs many miles away – and as much as a decade old – prompting concerns that environmental regulation isn’t “fit for purpose”.
Campaigners complained to a government animal welfare watchdog, with videos of badly injured salmon at a fish farm. This prompted a review, but should more have been done?
Investigations into allegations of poor fish welfare at salmon farms by the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency have risen by more than ten times in six years, while site inspections have decreased.
A well known salmon farming company was told by Scottish Government inspectors to cut lice numbers at three of its sites in Sutherland. It responded by suggesting that other salmon farmers were failing to report lice numbers accurately.
Campaigners asked for inspection reports on organic salmon farms in Scotland. It led to an appeal which could limit the public right to access environmental information.
The credibility of the salmon farming industry has come under attack after it admitted underestimating by 66 per cent the amount of antibiotics used to treat diseased fish in 2024.
A campaigner has made the first estimate of the total number of cleaner fish that have died while grazing lice on farmed salmon. It’s condemned as a “colossal waste of life” that should cease.
