Water (Special Measures) Bill
“My Government recognises the need to improve water quality
and a Bill will be introduced to strengthen the powers of the
water regulator.”
- The Water (Special Measures) Bill delivers on our manifesto
commitment to put water companies under tough special measures by
strengthening regulation and begin the work of cleaning up our
rivers, lakes and seas.
- As an immediate step, this Government will strengthen
regulation to reverse the tide on the unacceptable destruction of
our waterways, ensuring water companies deliver for customers and
the environment and attract private-sector investment to upgrade
our crumbling infrastructure.
- Change will take time. The Government will outline further
legislation to fundamentally transform our water industry and
restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health.
What does the Bill do?
- Water companies are failing to deliver for their customers
and the environment, and the public have, rightly, had enough.
The Government will introduce a new Bill to put water companies
under tough special measures to strengthen regulation as a first
step to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. The Water (Special
Measures) Bill will:
- strengthen regulation to ensure water bosses face
personal criminal liability for lawbreaking.
-
give the water regulator new powers to ban the
payment of bonuses if environmental standards are
not met.
-
boost accountability for water executives
through a new ‘code of conduct' for water companies, so
customers can summon board members and hold executives to
account.
- introduce new powers to bring automatic and severe
fines.
- require water companies to install real-time
monitors at every sewage outlet with data
independently scrutinised by the water regulators.
- These measures will strengthen the enforcement regime and
make clear that the Government will not tolerate poor performance
across the water sector. The Government will outline further
legislation to fundamentally transform and reset our water
industry and restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health.
Territorial extent and application
- The majority of the measures in the Bill will extend and
apply to England and Wales.
Key facts
- In 2022/23, £9.7 million was paid out in bonuses to water and
sewage company executives in England and Wales despite the poor
performance in the sector, with nearly £4.2 million in fines
issued as a result of prosecutions. Water company bosses should
not be rewarded when the water environment is being illegally
polluted with untreated sewage.
- It is clear, after years of failure, that we need stronger
regulation. Between 2015 and 2021 the number of enforcement
actions brought against companies by the Environment Agency (EA)
reduced by 48 per cent; only 5 prosecutions have been brought
against individuals within companies, 2 of which have been
successfully appealed.
- There is a lack of public trust in the water industry. Only
one-third of customers expressed trust in water companies'
ability to ‘prevent sewage from entering rivers and seas' and
only a quarter think ‘companies act in the interest of people and
the environment'.
- Monitoring of storm overflows in England has increased to 100
per cent. However, there are still 7,000 permitted emergency
overflows (i.e. non-storm overflows which can be used in extreme
circumstances) in England that are not monitored.
- Recent assessments of the condition of our rivers, lakes and
other surface waters show that over four in five are not in good
ecological condition, or on a trajectory towards it.
- The total dividends paid to shareholders by water companies
in England between April 2010 and April 2023 amounts to just
under £21.2 billion.
- There were 464,056 storm overflow spills recorded in 2023, a
record number and an increase of 54 per cent compared to the
301,091 spills in 2022.
