Fining firms for sewage spills will get ‘quicker and easier’, says government

It will soon become quicker and easier to fine British water companies for raw sewage leaks, the government has said.

The new proposals would introduce automatic fines of up to £20,000 for some minor offenses and make it easier to punish more serious offences.

Data from the water industry’s own monitoring equipment in recent years has shown how often rules are being broken on sewer leaks. But the regulator, the Environment Agency, has, by its own admission, struggled to act.

Announcing the proposals, Environment Minister Emma Reynolds said: “I want to give the Environment Agency the power it needs to tackle all the breaking of the rules.”

“New, automatic and tougher penalties on water companies will bring swift consequences for offenses including failure to treat sewage to the required standard and maintenance errors,” he said.

The plans will be submitted to a six-week public consultation from Wednesday.

British water companies welcomed the proposals, and a spokesman for trade body Water UK said: “It’s right that water companies are held to account when things go wrong.”

The enforcement system for the most serious pollution offenses remains the same. The EA must take the water companies to court and prove to criminal standards that a crime has been committed “beyond reasonable doubt”. If this prosecution results in a conviction, the company could be forced to pay a huge fine, possibly worth millions of pounds.

The new proposals focus on smaller crimes that occur frequently and have gone largely unpunished in the past.

The plans call for automatic financial penalties of up to £20,000 for breaches such as failing to report a significant pollution incident within four hours, failure to properly report leakage data or emergency overflow outlets emptying sewers more than three times a year.

For some more serious crimes, the government wants to make it easier for the EA to take action.

Therefore, it is proposed to lower the burden of proof to “on the balance of probabilities” used in civil cases, rather than “beyond all reasonable doubt”, which is the norm in criminal cases. The fines that EA can impose without going to court can be increased up to half a million liras at most.

A reduced burden of proof for some crimes is already enshrined in law as part of the Water (Special Measures) Act, which received Royal Assent in February 2025. This six-week consultation will determine which offenses should be included and the level of fines.

“Fines of £500,000 are pocket change for billion-pound companies like Thames Water,” says James Wallace, chief executive of campaign group River Action.

“Higher penalties and urgent wholesale reform are essential to prevent negligent firms from polluting our rivers and short-changing their customers.”