Scottish Water admits solar farms could use parts linked to China’s forced labour camps

Balmore water treatment works, East Dunbartonshire. Scottish Water said the 8,448 panels at the solar farm cost £5m but that it will ban Chinese-made solar panels from its future projects. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Scottish Water has admitted that its solar farms could use components linked to forced labour camps in China, “in clear conflict” with its anti-slavery policies.

Scottish Water, a state-owned monopoly, has installed tens of thousands of solar panels it suspects are linked to Chinese slave labour at 66 sites around the country, bought for tens of millions of pounds.