The Environment Agency has today published the latest Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) Regulations (WFDR) classifications, providing information to water companies, farmers and stakeholders to see clearly where the water environment is performing well and where further action is needed.

Today’s data shows that 14.3% of England’s surface waters achieved good ecological status, meeting the standards set out under the Water Framework Directive Regulations (WFDR), retained EU legislation which assesses the health of Europe’s rivers, lakes, estuaries and groundwater. All 4,658 surface water bodies were assessed against a range of standards covering wildlife, water quality and physical habitat.

While the figure reported in 2019 was 16.3%, the two datasets are not directly comparable because this time around, the EA has updated analytical methods, using a wider set of monitoring data and focusing on places it suspected it would find problems. This resulted in the overall figure of 14.3%.

The EA said this updated approach coupled with the classification system’s “one-out, all-out” rule where a single failing element can cause an entire water body to fail overall status, means some water bodies now show a lower status than in 2019 - even where there isn’t necessarily a genuine decline in water quality.

The underlying data shows 82% of individual ecological indicators are now Good or High demonstrating the underlying health of many waterways is encouraging even where overall classifications haven’t shifted.

Chair of the Environment Agency Alan Lovell said:

“The latest Water Environment (WFD) Classification help us understand where water bodies are improving and where further action is needed. The results show that too many water bodies are still not achieving the standards we want to see.

“We share the public’s ambition for faster progress which is why we are transforming our enforcement work with better data, stronger powers and our largest ever enforcement workforce.

“We now know more about the water environment than ever before, and the updated classifications are an important part of this picture. We are using all our evidence to direct sustained improvement action from water companies, farmers, businesses and councils.”

Many factors can affect the quality of rivers and other bodies of water – from sewage spills and agricultural nutrients to urban and transport surface water run-off, which can include litter, petrol and garden pesticides.

"One-out, all-out” rule means single failing element can cause an entire water body to fail overall status

The classification system’s “one-out, all-out” rule means that a single failing element can cause an entire water body to fail overall status. Around a third of water bodies that failed to achieve good status did so because of just one element. For example, the River Foss scores Good on every ecological indicator except phosphate, where it scores Moderate, bringing down the ecological status classification to Moderate. This means the river has been reported as a healthy environment for fish, plants and invertebrates. The Agency says this illustrates just how stringent these standards are.

The EA also point out that the strict requirements mean no EU country is currently on track to meet WFDR objectives, with comparable countries recording far lower rates of good ecological status, including 8% in Germany and 1% in the Netherlands.

The 2025 dataset also shows:

• 65.4% are moderate (63% in 2019), 17% are poor, 3.1% are bad and 0.1% are high.
• Ammonia levels at good or better status in 92.9% of cases.
• Groundwater results are slightly higher than in 2019, with 41% achieving good status, compared to 37% in 2019.

All surface waters continue to fail chemical status, largely due to persistent pollutants that accumulate in the environment and take decades to deplete.

The Environment Agency says it will use the data to work with water companies, farmers and communities identify to target investment and enforcement to deliver real improvements for rivers, lakes and groundwater.

The environmental regulator has significantly stepped up compliance and enforcement activity, carrying out a record 10,000 inspections of water company sites and increasing criminal investigations into breaches. The EA is also set to further increase farm inspections from 4000 up to 6000 annually over the next 3 years.Since 2015 the Agency has concluded over 70 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies, securing fines of over £158 million.

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