Minister numbers prosecutions for sewage spills since 2018

Since 2018 the Environment Agency has made 11 successful prosecution relating to pollution cases on the sewer network and storm overflows involving raw sewage according to environment minister, Rebecca Pow.

Pow as responding to a Parliamentary question by Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Tim Fallon.

Pow went on to provide an example of “other enforcement options for lesser offences” saying that since 2018 the agency had “used Enforcement Undertakings to secure over £8 million in payments from water companies to environmental charities to deliver environmental improvements.” This and similar options, Pow said, applied where perpetrators had also shown “good cooperation and have responded positively to mitigate the pollution.”

Pow provided the value of fines for each year for each company (see table). She pointed out that other prosecutions of water companies during the same period involved partially-treated and treated sewage and were included in the table.