Hundreds of tonnes of clinical and human waste piles up

Bags of clinical waste photographed at Kilsyth Health Centre have since been removed

Hundreds of tonnes of clinical and human waste is piled up at the Scottish sites of a failed disposal firm.

Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) ceased trading after being caught up in a row over stockpiling medical waste.

Latest estimates suggest up to 300 tonnes of clinical waste and 10 tonnes of anatomical waste are piled up at the HES plants in Dundee and Shotts, North Lanarkshire.

Specialist teams will be needed to clear the waste.

• What has happened at clinical waste firm?

• What now for HES staff?

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham told MSPs the majority of the human waste was at the firm's Shotts headquarters and any clearance operation was likely to cost about £250,000.

The collapse of HES, which previously had the NHS Scotland waste collection contract, saw 150 workers in Scotland lose their jobs and forced contingency measures to be put in place across the health service.

The Scottish government said these measures were working well but photographs showing bags of clinical waste piled at three health centres in North Lanarkshire have been posted on social media.

The HES head office was based in Shotts, North Lanarkshire.

Ms Cunningham told Holyrood that the best available evidence suggests there was a backlog of between 250 and 300 tonnes of clinical waste and 10 tonnes of anatomical waste at HES sites in Scotland.

She added: "Sepa (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) has been closely monitoring and inspecting the HES sites in Dundee and Shotts, including weekly inspections since December to ensure they comply with relevant environmental legislation.

"Enforcement notices were issued to HES in September and December 2018, however further scrutiny has established that the company has not fully met the requirements of notices.

"Subsequently Sepa has commenced an investigation to establish if criminal offences have been committed.

Contingency measures

"Sepa has also robustly reviewed the contingency arrangements in place at affected NHS sites to ensure all regulatory requirements are met and will continue to monitor all the affected sites to ensure the environment and local communities remain safeguarded."

HES lost its contract to provide waste processing services with NHS England after reports emerged in October last year that human body parts and other clinical waste was piling up after the company struggled to incinerate it.

In December last year, NHS Scotland announced that the firm would not have its contract continued north of the border when it came up for renewal in April this year.

Contingency measures were put in place which saw a string of temporary contractors take over the HES work to ensure clinical waste continued to be disposed of safely.

There have since been reports of a backlog of waste at some NHS sites and in Inverness, four porters at Raigmore Hospital were injured carrying out work involving clinical waste.

However, the Scottish government has insisted the contingency measures are working well.