The poor weather last week and over the weekend saw numerous alerts across our beaches as storm discharges occurred from the wastewater network.
As ever this will lead to people criticising the Government
over their perceived lack of action in this area, despite these claims being
very far from the truth.
We have a very antiquated sewage infrastructure across much
of the country. Apart from anything else, if the outlets don’t discharge, they
would be backing up and the contents would end up in peoples houses and
businesses. And the discharges themselves are not a new thing – they have been
going on for many years. What is new is that this Government is the first to
actually grasp the problem and try to do something about it. The first step to
doing something about it is to establish the scale of the problem, in order to
be able to understand and deal with it, which is what we have done with the
alerts. This now shows the scope of the problem, and it is now for the
Government to work with the water industry to take practical and sensible steps
to resolve it.
Part of this work is done by the Environment Agency, the
body responsible for regulating water pollution. The Environment Agency
produces an annual assessment of the environmental performance of all nine
water and sewerage companies in England which includes star ratings for each
company. Last week they published the latest set of annual results, which
showed that South West Water improved its performance slightly, moving up to a
2-star company (from 1-star in 2021). The Environment Agency states that they
hope this shows the start of a positive shift in culture under new leadership
within the company. Yesterday I met with Susan Davy, CEO of the Pennon Group,
which owns South West Water, about these results, and was clear that the
Government will continue to apply robust regulation and conduct thorough
performance reviews to ensure this momentum is maintained.
There is still much work to be done and I hope that this
year South West Water will reduce pollutions further via focussed investment in
infrastructure, applied learning from past mistakes and an improved data driven
approach driven by the additional alert system put in place by the Government
via the Environment Act.
Of course, while the increased monitoring and assessment of
water companies such as South West Water appears to be getting things to head
in the right direction, we still need to be able to take strong action to
punish offenders when things go wrong.
Currently, the maximum variable monetary penalty that can be
imposed for a wide range of environmental offences is capped at £250,000. This
is not an effective deterrent for very large operators, such as water
companies, as it may be cheaper for them to pay the penalty, or several penalties,
than to solve the underlying issue.
This week the Government is putting legislation through
Parliament that will remove the cap entirely to make the penalty unlimited,
meaning that penalties can be proportionate to the degree of environmental harm
and culpability and can act as a powerful deterrent.
The Government is also introducing unlimited variable
monetary penalties as a civil sanction for offences under the Environmental
Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016, so in future the Environment
Agency has all the tools it needs to change the behaviour of organisations who
break the law.
There is always more to do when it comes to tackling the
pollution of our seas and waterways. This is something I know is so important
to our constituency and I will continue working locally and in Westminster to
ensure the views of local people are represented and that the Government
continues to do all it can to tackle this issue.
If I can be of assistance or help on any matter, please get
in touch with my office on 01726 829379 or email office@stevedouble.org.uk
