Water companies failed to report more than 50,000 sewage spills in time, charity claims
Water companies in England failed to report more than 50,000 sewage spills within the time required by law in the first half of the year, an environmental charity has claimed.
By Sky News
Water companies in England failed to report more than 50,000 sewage discharges within the legally required timeframe during the first six months of the year, according to environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage.
Rules introduced in January 2025 require water companies to report sewage discharges within 60 minutes, so the public can be warned when sewage is entering rivers, lakes or coastal waters.
The charity’s analysis found that all nine water companies in England failed to meet the reporting requirement. More than 4,000 of the delayed reports affected designated bathing waters, it said.
The figures were based on data obtained through Freedom of Information requests and an analysis of live sewage-discharge notifications.
Surfers Against Sewage also reported that 7,450 sewage spills took place during dry weather in England during the first half of the year. The spills lasted a combined 70,400 hours.
Water companies are only permitted to use storm overflows during heavy rainfall. The charity said the findings showed that sewage was being discharged without timely public warnings.
Giles Bristow, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, said the delayed reporting was “a threat to public health, and illegal”.
The charity’s report also identified differences between its analysis and figures used by water companies and regulators.
South West Water said it was reviewing the methodology behind the charity’s figures. It said the data used by the charity differed from the approach used by water companies and regulators to measure storm-overflow spills.
Yorkshire Water also disputed the charity’s figures. It said its own data showed significantly fewer publications outside the one-hour timeframe and that delays could result from data-processing issues or problems at individual sites.
The company said it was working on a project to improve the processing of storm-overflow data, with the aim of publishing information more quickly and accurately.