On Friday, Canterbury Crown Court handed Southern Water a record £90m fine after it entered 51 guilty pleas to the Environment Agency’s case on widespread and long term breaches of environmental law between 2010 and 2015.
The thousands of illegal discharges of sewage were found to be caused by deliberate failings, causing major harm (Category 1) to protected areas, conservation sites and oyster beds in rivers and coastal waters in Kent, Hampshire and Sussex.
The case, which was the largest criminal investigation in the Environment Agency’s 25-year history, saw pollution offences from 16 wastewater treatment works and one storm overflow brought together in one prosecution.
Southern admitted to causing 6,971 illegal discharges over the offending period (2010-2105), which lasted a total of 61,704 hours, the equivalent of 2,571 days or just over seven years. The company also deliberately presented a misleading picture of compliance to the Environment Agency, hindering proper regulation of the company.
The Agency worked closely with Ofwat which already imposed a £126m penalty on Southern in 2019 for regulatory failures in the same period. Friday’s sentencing was part of the criminal investigation into permit breaches and environmental harm under the Water Resources Act and the Environmental Permitting Regulations.
Environment Agency chair, Emma Howard Boyd, said: “This sentence shows fines for environmental offences are starting to reach the same level as the highest fines for crimes in financial services and that is good. There is growing scrutiny of the environmental performance of companies all over the world, this sends an important message to global investors that England expects businesses to perform to the highest standards.”
In a statement, Southern’s chief executive, Ian McAulay, said he was “deeply sorry for the historic incidents” which he called “completely unacceptable”. He added: “These events happened between 2010 and 2015. I joined Southern Water in 2017 and am passionately committed to the environment. We have changed the way we operate. My expectation is that Southern Water is fully transparent and operates in the right way. We continue to transform across the areas of risk and compliance, measurement and self-reporting. We have made much progress and are continuing to invest to protect the environment and deliver our services safely and at a fair price for our customers.
“Today’s fine will not impact customers’ bills and investment in our transformation will not be reduced. Our shareholders are bearing the cost of the fine.”
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