The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee has today
(Wednesday 29 November) written to Sir , Chief Executive of the
Environment Agency over concerns raised in the media recently
about the reduction in sewage inspections.
The letter follows a recent evidence session attended by Sir
James and Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency where they
assured the Committee that the Environment Agency has and will
continue to maintain a large and sophisticated monitoring
network.
In the letter, the Committee has asked Sir to confirm:
- whether he has taken a decision to reduce inspections of
bathing water pollution incidents? and if so, the reasons for the
decision?
- if a reduction in inspections is driven by a lack of
resources at the Agency? And whether he is concerned that
pressures on the public finances could see inspections scaled
back further?
- how far he trusts water companies’ monitoring, assessments,
and evidence in relation to water pollution, given their past
performances?
- how he responds to the argument that this is an effort to
change how pollution incidents are classified rather than taking
action to reduce them?
- if scaling back inspections reduce the Agency’s knowledge of
what is actually happening in the water environment, increasing
the likelihood that it will fail to spot water companies
polluting the water environment in future, as it did initially in
relation to storm overflows?
, Chair of the Industry and
Regulators Committee said:
“The Committee is concerned to read recent reports suggesting
that the Environment Agency is reducing inspections in a number
of areas and will instead rely on the assessments made by water
companies. This appears to be contrary to the evidence we
recently received which suggested the need for more comprehensive
monitoring of water quality by regulators.
We are particularly concerned given the poor environmental
performance of water companies and the ongoing investigation into
several companies’ compliance with their permits in relation to
storm overflow usage.”
Sir James has been asked to respond to the letter by
Friday 16 December 2022.
Notes to editors
-
Read and download the letter
here.
-
The Industry and Regulators
Committee considers matters relating to industry, including
the policies of His Majesty’s Government to promote industrial
growth, skills, and competitiveness, and to scrutinise the work
of UK regulators.
- Launched in May 2022, the Committee’s Ofwat inquiry considers
Ofwat’s performance against its statutory objectives and
whether it has the powers and resources to needed to meet those
objectives.
- The evidence session with Sir and Alan Lovell, was held on
Tuesday 11 October 2022. Watch a recording of the session
