Landmark crackdown on ‘water pollution’ bosses

Major legislation to crack down on water bosses polluting Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas has been unveiled by the government, including the most significant increase in enforcement powers in a decade. 

The Water (Special Measures) Bill has been introduced to parliament and will give regulators new powers to take tougher and faster action to crack down on water companies damaging the environment and failing their customers.

The Bill delivers on Labour’s manifesto pledges to clean up the water sector, including significantly increasing the ability of the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against law-breaking water executives. It will create new tougher penalties, including imprisonment, for water executives when companies fail to co-operate or obstruct investigations.

The new legislation will also ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses if they fail to meet high standards to protect the environment, their consumers and their company’s finances.

Other measures in the Bill include severe and automatic fines for a range of offences, including allowing regulators to issue penalties more quickly, without having to direct resources to lengthy investigations. It will also introduce independent monitoring of every sewage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within an hour of the initial spill.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, said, “The public are furious that in 21st century Britain, record levels of sewage are being pumped into our rivers, lakes and seas. After years of neglect, our waterways are now in an unacceptable state.

“That is why I am announcing immediate action to end the disgraceful behaviour of water companies and their bosses.

“Under this Government, water executives will no longer line their own pockets whilst pumping out this filth. If they refuse to comply, they could end up in the dock and face prison time.

“This Bill is a major step forward in our wider reform to fix the broken water system. We will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform how the water industry is run and speed up the delivery of upgrades to our sewage infrastructure to clean up our waterways for good.”

Bill overview

  • Bring criminal charges against persistent lawbreakers, including imprisonment

Since privatisation, only three individuals have been criminally prosecuted by the Environment Agency. The Bill will significantly increase the ability for the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against law-breaking water executives, and tough new penalties when companies fail to co-operate or obstruct investigations.

  • Ban bonus payouts

Despite overseeing catastrophic failure, water chief executives have paid themselves over £41m in bonuses, benefits and incentives since 2020. This Bill will give Ofwat powers to ban the payment of performance-related pay.

  • Introduce severe and automatic fines for offences
  • Ensure independent monitoring of every outlet

Emergency sewage overflows are not currently fully monitored. Water companies will be required to publish real-time data (within an hour) for all emergency overflows in England in a clear, accessible format.

Wider measures to strengthen regulation

  •   Water companies will be obliged to publish annual Pollution Incident Reduction Plans, setting out steps to address incidents and ensure, wherever possible, they do not happen again.

 Wider reform

The introduction of this Bill is part of the Government’s three-stage approach as work begins to clean up UK waterways.

  • Reset: Within a week into office, the Environment Secretary secured agreement with Ofwat to ringfence funding for vital infrastructure upgrades and to ensure this can only be spent on upgrades benefiting customers and the environment. The money can’t be diverted for bonuses, dividends or salary increases.
  • Special Measures: The Government is introducing its first piece of water legislation to strengthen the power of water industry regulators and drive meaningful improvements in performance and culture.
  • Transform: The Government will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform how the nation’s water system operates to tackle pollution and deliver a resilient water supply, boost investment and speed up infrastructure upgrades to clean up the nation’s waterways.

The full set of measures was published in September. Measures are subject to consultation, with further information set out in the coming months.

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