The Environment Agency has called on courts to impose much tougher penalties on water company chief executives and boards including prison sentences for “serious and deliberate” pollution incidents.
The stark suggestion came as the EA released its annual Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) that showed an overall decline in performance for 2021, with Southern and South West receiving only one star each.
The EPA rates English water and wastewater companies from one to four stars for performance on environmental commitments such as pollution incidents and treatment work compliance.
Northumbrian, Severn Trent and United Utilities maintained their four star ratings, while Anglian, Thames, Wessex and Yorkshire each received a two star rating.
The EA described performance on pollution as “shocking”. Serious pollution incidents rose to 62 – the highest number since 2013.
“Company directors let this occur and it is simply unacceptable,” said EA chair Emma Howard Boyd.
“Over the years the public have seen water company executives and investors rewarded handsomely while the environment pays the price. The water companies are behaving like this for a simple reason: because they can. We intend to make it too painful for them to continue as they are,” she vowed.
Howard Boyd, whose tenure will end later this year, has previously advocated for fines that “hurt”.
She said repeat offenders can now expect criminal prosecutions for incidents that the EA would previously have dealt with using civil powers and that the agency wants to see prison sentences for chief executives and board members whose companies are responsible for the most serious incidents.
“We would like to see company directors being struck off so they cannot simply delete illegal environmental damage from their CV and move on to their next role,” she said.
Water companies have increased monitoring of and reporting on storm overflows following a surge in interest in river water quality that sparked political pressure. Companies have committed to adding monitoring to all combined sewer overflow points by the end of 2023 and make that data publicly available.
Howard Boyd added that fines are too often not significant to deter offenders. She said: “The water companies will only stop behaving like this if they are forced to. The amount a company can be fined for environmental crimes is unlimited, but fines currently handed down by the courts often amount to less than a chief executive’s salary.”
Courts should impose much higher fines that are seen as a deterrent, Howard Boyd stated, as she insisted that investors must no longer see water companies as a “one-way bet”.
“Water companies exist to serve the public. Their environmental performance is a breach of trust. The polluter must pay.”