Water bosses could face criminal charges for repeated sewage dumping, minister says

Water bosses who continue to dump sewage into waterways across the country could face criminal charges, under new proposals.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed said that regulators will be "given more teeth" to help keep water companies to account.

New legislation is set to be introduced in Parliament to tighten regulations on what can and cannot be dumped into rivers, lakes and the sea.

Writing in a Sunday column, the MP for Streatham and Croydon North said that the current system is "more profitable to let the pollution flow rather than fix the broken pipes", and regulation to stop it is too weak.

But under new draft laws, the Cabinet minister said that he would continue to push for cleaner waterways to benefit the public.

"Water bosses responsible for repeated illegal sewage dumping will face criminal charges, and I'll ban the payment of their multimillion-pound bonuses until they clean up their toxic filth," he wrote.

"This should never have been allowed to happen, and, with our new Labour government, it will never happen again."

Giving interviews on Sunday (July 28th), he would not go into detail on the threshold companies have to cross in order to be held liable, as this would be ironed out in debates.

"What I want to do is clean up our water," Reed said. "We'll do it by making the water bosses face criminal charges if they are responsible for persistent, severe levels of illegal sewage dumping.

"We will ban the payment of their multimillion-pound bonuses while they're overseeing that kind of failure."

According to figures released by the Environment Agency, there were 47 serious pollution incidents in 2023, up from 44 in 2022.

Of the incidents - four water companies - Thames Water, Anglian Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water - were responsible for 90% of the spills.

His comments came after he confirmed that Thames Water would not be temporarily nationalised, arguing that the company remains solvent and there is "no threat to the water supply".

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