The environment secretary has told water companies in England that they will no longer be able to monitor and report on pollution from their own treatment works.
Steve Barclay told the privatised industry he would put an end to operator self-monitoring in a toughening of the regulatory approach.
The system, which has been criticised for allowing water companies to “mark their own homework”, was introduced more than 10 years ago, ending the practice by which Environment Agency officials carried out all the testing of treatment works and sewage discharges.
Water companies were allowed to do their own testing of treated effluent to make sure it met the legal requirements of their permits, as well as monitoring their releases of raw sewage via storm overflows.
The Guardian revealed recently that the Environment Agency was failing to regularly audit water companies to check they are telling the truth about pollution and illegal sewage discharges. The agency is conducting a major criminal inquiry into suspected widespread illegal sewage dumping from treatment works.
Peter Hammond, who in evidence to MPs said that illegal sewage discharges by water companies were at least 10 times higher than monitoring figures suggest, has been calling for an end to operator self-monitoring for years, saying it is routinely abused.
He said: “If they are going to end operator self-monitoring, I would be very pleased. It could result in a major improvement in river ecology, but this is assuming it would be done properly and paid for by the water industry. Ending operator self-monitoring is one of the major changes I have been campaigning for. My research shows less than 50% of all treated sewage has ever been monitored for quality for decades because of operator self-monitoring.”
Hammond said the scale of monitoring required would need huge investment.
Sources in the water industry said Barclay told companies at a meeting this week that he was going to end operator self-monitoring. He gave no timescale or any indication that this would happen before the next general election.
Barclay is not the first Conservative minister to promise an end to the practice. Rebecca Pow, as an environment minister, promised to end operator self-monitoring three years ago, but no action was taken.
Steve Reed, the shadow environment secretary, said: “Labour has long demanded the end of self-monitoring of sewage discharges, which allows water companies to cover up what’s really going on. It’s astonishing it’s taken the government so long to act.
“Now the Tories have started to follow where Labour leads, they must go further and adopt our plan to ban bonuses for the water bosses responsible for illegal sewage dumping. If they do, they can count on our support.”
The Environment Agency lost the job of monitoring water companies during major cuts to the agency. The agency’s former chief executive, James Bevan, said he liked the system, telling MPs: “We have some quite sophisticated ways to check that data.”
A government spokesperson said: “The environment secretary has been clear that he wants to reduce the levels of self-monitoring that were introduced in 2009 by bringing in significantly more EA inspections and spot checks of water company asset, including through forced entry to sites.
“This is part of the government’s wider determination to hold companies to account – driving more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement.”
