The Government will invest over £100 million in fines and penalties levied against water companies since October 2023 (as well as future fines and penalties) into local projects across the country to clean up rivers, lakes and seas.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water has been fined £1.35 million and ordered to pay £70,237.70 costs after pleading guilty to over 800 breaches of its environmental permits to discharge sewage.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has concluded that there have been failures to comply with environmental law by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat following an investigation into the regulation of network combined sewer overflows (CSOs).

The Environment Agency has issued three new environmental permits to NNB Generation Company (Sizewell C) Limited for a new nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk.

In the context of ongoing criticism from regulators, NGOs, Parliamentary Committees and the public of the water companies’ unsatisfactory environmental performance, HUBER Technology talks about the key role sewage screens play in mitigating the impacts of unauthorised sewage discharges into rivers, lakes and the sea.

Dairy Crest, the maker of popular brands like Cathedral City and others, has been fined £1.5 million - the largest fine ever awarded for an Environment Agency conviction in the South West.

Ofwat has published further details of information gathered in its wastewater treatment works to date, including identification of some of the root causes of problems flagged up by the water companies themselves.

Ofwat has today announced that it is opening enforcement cases into five water and wastewater companies as part of its ongoing investigation into how companies manage their wastewater treatment works.

The Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat have launched a major investigation into sewage treatment works, after new checks led to water companies admitting that they could be releasing unpermitted sewage discharges into rivers and watercourses.

The Government is due to be presented with evidence that unlawful discharge of raw sewage into rivers is at least 10 times greater than Environment Agency prosecutions suggest, according to a report in the Guardian newspaper.