Proposals to raise the civil penalty for water companies

I welcome the Government's announcement to bring forward proposals to raise the civil penalty for water companies. 

This move comes as part of the Government's ongoing action to push for water companies to invest more in infrastructure that will minimise pollution incidents, and secure water supply for future generations. 

Water companies' current environmental performance is unacceptable, and current fines provided by the Environment Agency (EA) do not provide an effective enough deterrent. Last year there were 62 serious pollution incidents by water companies - up from 44 in 2020. 

That is why the Government will consult on increasing Environment Agency fines by up to 1000-fold from £250,000, to up to £250 million for water companies, meaning the EA will no longer need to go through courts to seek a criminal prosecution. Increasing the cap for fines up to £250 million will simplify and speed up the process of enforcement, by allowing the EA to directly hand out penalties to water companies.

I am confident that by cracking down on water companies that illegally breach permit conditions, and release wastewater and sewage into rivers and seas, this will contribute towards helping our water quality and deliver cleaner rivers, lakes, and seas. 

Last month, the Environment Secretary asked water companies to write to him with their plans for improving environmental performance and infrastructure. Responses have now been received from all water companies and are currently being scrutinised as part of the ongoing work by the Government, the Environment Agency and the regulator Ofwat to drive up water companies' performance and increase accountability. 

The Environment Secretary said: "I have been clear that if water companies don’t do what is expected, there will be consequences. Bigger financial penalties will act as a greater deterrent and push water companies to do more, and faster, when it comes to investing in infrastructure and improving the quality of our water. This 1,000-fold increase sends a clear signal that we want clean rivers and coastlines, and that the duty falls to the water companies to deliver – the polluter must pay. "

Alongside this, I am pleased that the Government will be setting out strict new targets through the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, cracking down on sewage discharges to protect water quality. This will start the largest investment in infrastructure ever undertaken by the water industry, an estimated £56 billion of capital investment over the next 25 years, eliminating 80 per cent of discharges by 2050. 

I want our environment left in a better state than we found it for future generations, which is one of my key priorities I have set out for my constituents. I am confident that these proposals will help care for our environment, protecting biodiversity, the ecology of rivers and seas, and the public health of water users. This is also a very important issue to me personally, and something I've been working on locally in the River Yare.  To find out more about what action I am taking both in Norwich and Westminster for this work, please visit: https://www.chloesmith.org.uk/myplan/environment