Report claims government plans to move away from European water quality methodology

The government is planning to ditch established EU standards for water quality monitoring in favour of its own methodology, according to a report in The Guardian.

The newspaper said the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) process would be used to to assess water quality performance, rather than the Water Framework Directive methodology. It quoted a spokesperson for the Environment Agency explaining: “A pioneering partnership between Defra, Natural England, Environment Agency, Forest Research and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, NCEA blends capability, expertise and experience to build a richer, more comprehensive picture of our natural environment, monitoring quality and quantity, assessing the impact of or need for interventions and helping to manage and protect our natural capital.”

Defra does not intend to update its 2019 assessment, which showed 14% of English rivers were in good ecological health and none met standards for good chemical health, until 2025.

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