Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey has today (Monday 20
February) demanded water companies share plans on improving
Britain’s water infrastructure.
The fresh move is part of the drive for better water quality,
building on significant work with industry and regulators,
allowing government to track progress of investment and new
projects.
The Environment Secretary has demanded a clear assessment &
action plan on every storm overflow from every water and sewerage
company in England, prioritising those that are spilling more
than a certain number of times a year, and those spilling into
bathing waters and high priority nature sites.
She has also set out more detail on how water companies will face
higher penalties that are quicker and easier to enforce.
Any water company caught illegally polluting our waters currently
faces enforcement action from the Environment Agency. This can
range from Enforcement Undertakings – companies paying to restore
damage to the environment – through to prosecution in the
courts.
The most serious cases are dealt with through criminal
prosecutions. Fines of more than £102 million were handed out in
2021. Last year it was announced that money from these fines will
be re-invested into schemes that benefit the environment, rather
than being returned to the Treasury.
However, prosecutions can take a long time to bring to a
conclusion. That is why the government is consulting on making it
easier and quicker for penalties to be issued so that polluters
are made to pay immediately when damage is caused to our rivers
and seas.
On the upper limit of fines, all options – including £250 million
– remain on the table. There will be a public consultation in the
spring to find an upper limit that is a real and serious
deterrent.
Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said:
People are concerned about the impacts of sewage entering our
rivers and seas and I am crystal clear that this is totally
unacceptable.
We need to be clear that this is not a new problem. Storm
overflows have existed for over a century. The law has always
allowed for discharges, subject to regulation. That is how our
Victorian sewers are built – wastewater and rain are carried in
the same pipe. When it reaches a certain height, it pours into
another pipe and into rivers.
And while we have done more about it than any other government –
we were the first government to require companies to start
comprehensively monitoring spillage so that we could see what was
actually going on – there is still significant work to do.
Through the largest infrastructure programme in water company
history we will tackle the problem at source, with more
investment on projects like the new Thames Tideway super
sewer. I am making sure that regulators have the powers they need
to take action when companies don’t follow the rules, including
higher penalties that are quicker and easier to enforce.
I am now demanding every company to come back to me with a clear
plan for what they are doing on every storm overflow,
prioritising those near sites where people swim and our most
precious habitats.
The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, published last
year, required water companies to deliver the largest
infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion
capital investment over 25 years.
More detail on the government’s plans to deliver clean and
plentiful water were also set out last month in its Environmental Improvement
Plan 2023, a five-year strategy for a cleaner, greener
country.
