There has been widespread positive coverage following the introduction of The Water (Special Measures) Bill to parliament on Wednesday 5 September. This major legislation will give regulators new powers to take tougher and faster action to crack down on water companies damaging the environment and failing their customers and includes the most significant increase in enforcement powers in a decade.
The Bill delivers on the manifesto pledges to clean up the water sector, including significantly increasing the ability of the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against law-breaking water executives. It will create new tougher penalties, including imprisonment, for water executives when companies fail to co-operate or obstruct investigations.
The new legislation will also ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses if they fail to meet high standards to protect the environment, their consumers and their company's finances.
Other measures in the Bill include severe and automatic fines for a range of offences, including allowing regulators to issue penalties more quickly, without having to direct resources to lengthy investigations.
The news was reported by a number of national publications including the BBC, Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Sun, Sky News, Financial Times, Daily Mirror, Guardian and iNews. The Environment Secretary, Steve Reed, was also interviewed on BBC Breakfast to outline the legislation, with additional broadcast coverage on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sky News, ITV News, LBC and BBC Radio 5 Live.
Coverage focused on the measures in the Bill, particularly highlighting the tougher penalties for water company bosses. Statements from the Environment Secretary are featured throughout the coverage, alongside a statement from Environment Agency Chair Alan Lovell, who welcomed the new legislation.
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, said:
The public are furious that in 21st century Britain, record levels of sewage are being pumped into our rivers, lakes and seas. After years of neglect, our waterways are now in an unacceptable state.
That is why today I am announcing immediate action to end the disgraceful behaviour of water companies and their bosses.
Under this Government, water executives will no longer line their own pockets whilst pumping out this filth. If they refuse to comply, they could end up in the dock and face prison time.
This Bill is a major step forward in our wider reform to fix the broken water system. We will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform how the water industry is run and speed up the delivery of upgrades to our sewage infrastructure to clean up our waterways for good.
Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency, said:
We welcome the Water (Special Measures) Bill and the government's ambition to drive through much needed reform.
The Bill will give us, as regulator, more power to protect our precious water quality and resources, hold water companies to account and ensure the polluter pays. The stronger penalties introduced by the Bill will deter illegal behaviour and allow us to close the justice gap and strengthen our ability to deliver swift enforcement action.
This builds on our ongoing work to deliver our biggest ever transformation in the way we regulate, including recruiting up to 500 additional staff for a specialised workforce and investing in new digital and monitoring systems to identify the root cause of issues.