Section 8 – The relevant threshold
19.This section sets out the rate threshold above which abstractions from inland water in Scotland are subject (unless otherwise exempt) to the approval of the Scottish Ministers. The rate threshold is 10 megalitres per day, although Ministers may seek to alter that threshold in future by regulations. One megalitre contains one million litres.
20.The Scottish Ministers may by regulations prescribe a method of calculation of the rate of abstraction, and in doing so may provide for some or all of the water abstracted to be left out of account in specified circumstances. Those circumstances could include, for example, where the water abstracted is returned to the water environment unaltered and within a defined period of time.