No more licence to spill as action against water companies has stepped up with Yorkshire Water being fined £350,000 after a watercourse was polluted with sewage.
The spillage happened at Foss Dike, near York, in March 2018 close to a faulty pumping station the company knew was broken, the Environment Agency has said. It was fined at York Magistrates’ Court on 30 May, having previously pleaded guilty to two offences related to the incident last November.
In a statement to the BBC, Yorkshire Water apologised for the incident and said it was investing more than £8bn into its infrastructure. The Environment Agency said Yorkshire Water had been aware Fossbridge Sewage Pumping Station’s backup pump had not been working for five months prior to the spillage.
Meanwhile a South Yorkshire MP has welcomed the Government’s announcement that it has undertaken the largest increase in criminal action against water companies in history. A record 81 criminal investigations into water companies have been launched in England since the election in July 2024 including four new investigations into Yorkshire Water.
Following these investigations, water bosses could be jailed for five years, and water companies fined hundreds of millions of pounds.
Speaking to Doncaster Free Press, Rawmarsh and Conisbrough MP John Healey (who is currently the Secretary of State for Defence) said: “Sewerage dumping across South Yorkshire has been a stain on our local environment for too long….”
New powers in the Government’s landmark Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, mean water executives who cover up or hide illegal sewage spillages can now be locked up for two years and water companies fined hundreds of millions of pounds.
Seven cases against water companies are going to court over the next few months. Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed MP is seeking to tackle the ongoing pollution crisis in the country’s waterways following rising public anger over the amount of sewage being pumped into rivers, lakes and seas. And a further seven new cases brought against water companies will be going to the courts in the coming months, following investigations by the regulator.
The Government claims the number of investigations per month has risen by 150%, a new record. The Government said this was a reflection of the increase in monthly criminal probes that have been launched. Between July last year and March this year, there had
been an average of nine criminal investigations launched each month, as opposed to 3.6 a month between April 2020 and June 2024.
But some campaign groups remain sceptical over the Government’s action, warning that jail time for executives was “highly unlikely” and that prosecutions could take years to come about. They have also raised concerns about potential spending cuts in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s review later this month.
Despite the doubts, Reed insisted he would punish those found to be breaking the law when it comes to the environment,
Recently Thames Water was fined £122.7m for breaching rules over sewage spillages and shareholder pay-outs. The penalty was the biggest ever issued by the water industry regulator Ofwat, which said the company had “let down its customers and failed to protect the environment”. The watchdog confirmed the fines would be paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers who were recently hit with water bill increases.