‘It is desperate’: how Environment Agency staff were silenced as pollution worsened

Polluted water on the River Thames at Maidenhead. Environment Agency staff were threatened with dismissal if they discussed its work either publicly or within the organisation. Photograph: Maureen McLean/Rex/Shutterstock

The internal email dropped into staff inboxes at a time when public outrage about pollution in English rivers was in full cry, generating parliamentary debates, demonstrations and mass petitions.

But within the agency responsible for protecting and enhancing the environment the focus was on gagging staff with the threat of dismissal if they discussed its work both inside and outside the organisation.