Recent, entirely misleading coverage by Channel 4 claims that the Environment Agency has prioritised the use of enforcement undertakings, rather than criminal prosecutions, against water companies for serious pollution incidents.
We completely reject this characterisation. Enforcement undertakings represent one of the many tools in the Environment Agency’s arsenal – but we continue to bring forward prosecutions for the most serious offences.
Since 2021 we’ve prosecuted and secured convictions in 37 cases against water companies. The recent coverage selectively concentrated on a very limited dataset where offending and sentence had occurred in the last five years – overlooking our prosecutions of very significant cases, many of which are now imminently awaiting sentence. Timings for sentencing rest entirely with the courts, rather than with the Environment Agency.
We are stepping up our enforcement activity right across the board, having completed over 10,000 inspections of water companies in the last year. This step change has also seen a record sum of £8.5 million raised through enforcement undertakings.
Enforcement undertakings are legally binding agreements between the Environment Agency and companies that have breached environmental rules. The undertaking requires the company concerned to take steps to prevent repetition of the offending and to put right the damage it has caused.
This money can help deliver immediate benefits to the environment, without requiring lengthy and uncertain court proceedings, which can take years to secure meaningful penalties. They are a complement to our wider enforcement work – not a replacement – and we will not pass up opportunities to repair damage and improve our waterways.
Examples of the kind of impacts enforcement undertakings can have include:
- Over £4.5 million raised from Severn Trent which has helped local charities including the Trent Rivers Trust and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust deliver targeted improvements in the affected catchments through measures such as habitat restoration, barrier removal and water quality improvements.
- £300,000 paid by Wessex Water following their pollution of the River Gascoigne, being used by the Yeovil Rivers Community Trust to improve habitats in the area, including vital work to support endangered water vole populations. It will create reedbeds, wetlands and ponds at Yeovil Country Park and along Preston Brook.
With more people, better data, and stronger powers, we are holding water companies to account more than ever.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said:
“These claims are nonsense. Since 2021 we’ve prosecuted and secured convictions in 37 cases against water companies.
“Prosecutions are just one tool against water pollution, and we have also levied a record £8.5 million in enforcement undertakings against water companies in the last year alone, directly restoring harm done to our waterways and improving water quality for communities across the country."