Breakdown: Key figures from Ofwat’s investigation into Southern Water
By
James Wallin
£37.7 million– Penalty issued by Ofwat against Southern Water -the equivalent of 6.7% of the wholesale wastewater arm’s turnover for 2017-18
£3 million – Amount the fine was reduced to once Southern Water’s wider settlement package was agreed
£123 million – Returned to customers through their bills over the next five years. This is made up of:
£91.2 million – Penalties Southern Water avoided during 2010 – 2017
£32 million– Further payments demanded by Ofwat payments as recognition of the serious failures
991 – Issues Southern Water had identified as of January 2019 which compromised (or were seen as potentially compromising) Environment Agency permit conditions, across 245 of its wastewater treatment works – 650 of which had already been resolved. The bulk of these can be broken down into:
182 – issues with monitoring equipment and systems used to monitor performance at wastewater treatment works
147 – issues relating to a lack of inaccurate signage
87 – issues with controlling the flow of effluent
61 – issues with sample points at wastewater treatment works – for example, lack of access for samplers and incorrect locations specified
58 – issues with copies of permits, for example, missing pages or information and incorrect details
56 – issues with the deterioration and standard of screening devices and their maintenance
51 – issues with insufficient capacity within storm tanks, creating a risk around premature spills to the environment
48 – issues with the maintenance and cleaning of storm tanks, resulting in large amounts of debris and sludge remaining within tanks
£26 million – Capital costs Southern Water identified resulting from its permit compliance investigation
99 – Instances (out of a total of 584 events) in which Southern Water identified it was ‘highly probable’ that an Artificial No Flow Event had been implemented. This practice is described by Ofwat as a deliberate practice in which staff ensured there was no effluent available to be sampled during an Operator Self Monitoring inspection, resulting in an automatic compliant verdict being recorded
71 – Instances (out of the 54) where there was ‘medium probability of an Artificial No Flow Event having been implemented
Two – Previous occasions Ofwat has taken enforcement action against Southern Water – a £20.3 million fine in February 2008 for deliberate misreporting of customer service performance data and section 19 undertakings accepted in October 2011 for leakage failures
