There has been widespread positive coverage following the introduction of The Water (Special Measures) Bill to parliament on Wednesday 5 September. This major legislation will give regulators new powers to take tougher and faster action to crack down on water companies damaging the environment and failing their customers and includes the most significant increase in enforcement powers in a decade.
The Bill delivers on the 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.
The news was reported by a number of national publications including the BBC, Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Sun, Sky News, Financial Times, Daily Mirror, Guardian and iNews. The Environment Secretary, Steve Reed, was also interviewed on BBC Breakfast to outline the legislation, with additional broadcast coverage on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sky News, ITV News, LBC and BBC Radio 5 Live.
Coverage focused on the measures in the Bill, particularly highlighting the tougher penalties for water company bosses. Statements from the Environment Secretary are featured throughout the coverage, alongside a statement from Environment Agency Chair Alan Lovell, who welcomed the new legislation.
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 today 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.
Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency, said:
We welcome the Water (Special Measures) Bill and the government’s ambition to drive through much needed reform.
The Bill will give us, as regulator, more power to protect our precious water quality and resources, hold water companies to account and ensure the polluter pays. The stronger penalties introduced by the Bill will deter illegal behaviour and allow us to close the justice gap and strengthen our ability to deliver swift enforcement action.
This builds on our ongoing work to deliver our biggest ever transformation in the way we regulate, including recruiting up to 500 additional staff for a specialised workforce and investing in new digital and monitoring systems to identify the root cause of issues.
6 comments
Comment by Kumar Patel posted on
This changes don't go far enough! The useless regulators (no doubt lined up for cushy corporate directorships) have allowed our environment and water resources to be significantly damaged. In return the water company senior execs and shareholders have lined their pockets. The regulator should (1) fine and imprison directors who broke the law (including previous management), (2) ensure no director is allowed to work in the corporate sector for at least 10 years, and (3) immediately take action to make water companies clean up their mess.
Comment by Stephanie Thompson posted on
There needs to be meaningful action to address PFAS. The US Environmental Protection Agency has much tighter standards than the UK. One company 3M had to pay $10bn to compensate communities for the effects of its PFAS discharges.
A study by Liverpool John Moores University published in February this year found the Mersey basin to be one of the world's worst globally for forever chemicals - PFAS. Details were published in the Financial Times on 6th March. The City of Liverpool, which is on the Mersey waterfront, according to official statistics, has cancer mortality for under 75 year-olds 30% higher than England average.
The UK needs to have proper monitoring, not just at WwTW, but along rivers to detect a significant PFAS sources to protect human and environmental health.
In Liverpool there's a continuing huge waste pile-up by S. Norton Co. Ltd at the edge of the Mersey. Rainwater runoff could be carrying PFAS into the Mersey. In July there was a major fire at the site lasting over 24 hours with dense white smoke drifting across the Everton community. My personal Temptop air quality monitor recorded 177.9ug/m3 of PM2.5 at Sandhills station which is on the main railway route from Liverpool to Bootle, and on to Southport. The PM2.5 dust could have contained PFAS.
Much tighter controls of dangerous emissions from waste and waste processing sites are needed, and rules that they are not sited in proximity to communities.
Comment by alan wightman posted on
These measures are "window-dressing" . Owners are the wealthiest persons
& corporations in the world with no possibility of prison. Managers are only doing the `bidding´ of their `Masters & Commanders´ and it is they who will `walk the plank´. Perhaps the `carrot´ is preferable to the `stick´.
Threat of full nationalization will drop share dividends & profits for Govt to
`compulsory´ acquisition of 51% of shares and majority control with final decision-making e.g. prices, salaries, services. Thus profit-sharing with 51% / 49% in best interests of both parties compared to 100% of nothing and
avoidance of future conflict of interests.
Comment by John W Baxter posted on
The entrapped water customers have paid for years for water and wastewater treatment, to have been shortchanged by the bodies looking after their interests.
The customers should be compensated for having paid to have their waste treated by water companies instead of being used to pay shareholders and bonuses to water company bonus recipients…..and as far as empowerment of government agents to hold water companies to account, dining out together and varying the parameters of regulation to accommodate water companies is just too cosy……resulting in algal bloom in lake systems and rendering recreational assets a national disgrace, unusable safely by the bill payers..Shame on you.
Comment by Julie Houldershaw posted on
Unless we get to the true state of our sewage treatment plants capacities, and sewage pipe capacities, no true progress can be made. We need to review treatment plant permits, and include population capacity loads. Each time new developments are added, new permits must be submitted to confirm treatment plant and sewage pipe infrastructure has sufficient capacity.
Plus all storm and emergency overflows must be registered. How can we hold water companies to account, if no one knows about them.
Comment by Tony Bane posted on
This Water(special measures) Bill is a start to reform a pretty rotten private enterprise originated by Margaret Thatcher. Other countries in the world don’t privatise the supply of water and the treatment of sewage etc.
These money making “cash cows” need to be taken into State ownership on a rolling programme even if takes many many years