The Environment Agency has reported that 96% of English bathing waters have met minimum required quality standards - with 90% of bathing waters in England being rated as ‘good’ or ‘excellent.’
The annual results follow testing at over 400 sites regularly used by swimmers throughout the summer. The tests, carried out by the Environment Agency, monitor for sources of pollution known to be a risk to bathers’ health, specifically E coli and intestinal enterococci.
However, the Agency cautioned that while bathing water quality has improved over the past few decades, standards have fallen slightly in the last year, likely in part due to an unseasonably wet summer causing run-off.
Last year’s statistics showed that 97% met the minimum standard of ‘sufficient’, whilst 93% met the highest standards of ‘good’ and ‘excellent’.
Headline results
- In 2023, out of the 423 bathing waters measured in England, 405 (95.7 per cent) met at least the minimum standard of the Bathing Water Regulations.
- In 2023, 281 bathing waters in England (66.4 per cent) met the Excellent standard of the Bathing Water Regulations.
- In 2023, 18 bathing waters in England (4.3 per cent) did not meet the minimum standard, and were classified as Poor.
Environment Agency Chair Alan Lovell said:
“Many people enjoy time in or on lakes, rivers and coastal waters, and we know the value they bring in terms of social, health and wellbeing benefits.
“While overall bathing water quality has improved over the last decade due to targeted investment, robust regulation from the Environment Agency and work carried out by partners, these results show there is significant work still to do to ensure the quality of our bathing waters is increasing every year.
“The slight fall in standards this year show we must go further to drive improvements and that this takes time and investment. That’s why we are strengthening our regulation and working with the water sector, farmers, industry, and others to help them put the environment at the heart of their activities and improve our bathing waters for all.”
Other complex factors which influence bathing water quality can include tides, and physical or environmental changes at a site, with every catchment affected differently.
The Agency said that measures to improve water quality include:
Setting strict targets for water companies to reduce the impact of storm overflows. This has led to the largest infrastructure programme in water company history with £60 billion to be invested over the next 25 years, preventing hundreds of thousands of sewage overflows every year.
Significant new investments to improve water quality at bathing waters, ramping up the investment from the last price control to improve hundreds of storm overflows across the country, and investment to install thousands of new state-of-the-art water quality monitors across the country.
Supporting farmers to reduce water pollution and an increase in agricultural regulation, including doubling funding for free face-to-face support on reducing water pollution to all farmers in England. The Environment Agency carried out more than 4,000 farm inspections across England last year, helping farmers comply with legal requirements and resulting in more than 5,000 actions undertaken to improve farm practices and drive improvements to our environment.
Water quality at designated bathing water sites in England is assessed by the Environment Agency. From May to September, weekly assessments measure current water quality, and at a number of sites daily pollution risk forecasts are issued. Annual ratings classify each site as excellent, good, sufficient or poor based on measurements taken over a period of up to four years.
The statistics reveal that two inland bathing water sites have been classified as poor:
i. 2023 Bathing Water Profile for Wharfe at Cromwheel, Ilkley, West Yorkshire, England
The most recent classification is Poor, based on samples taken from 2021 through to 2023.
ii. 2023 Bathing Water Profile for Wolvercote Mill Stream Oxfordshire, England
The most recent classification is Poor, based on samples taken from 2022 through to 2023.
On the back of the results, the Environment Agency said it is working with local authorities to take targeted action at all bathing waters classified as ‘poor’.
Click here to access the bathing water quality data online
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