The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Water UK have both issued a strong rebuttal of an article in the Guardian newspaper last week saying that England had been ranked last in Europe for bathing water quality in 2020.

There have been inaccurate reports about the UK being ranked last in Europe for bathing water quality in 2020, a statement issued by Defra said.

Defra pointed out that it is not the case that water quality at bathing sites has suddenly declined. Rather, due to lockdown restrictions the Environment Agency had to pause water sampling for much of the 2020 season to adhere with social distancing and to protect the safety of field, office and laboratory staff. Bathing waters in England were therefore not classified in 2020.

Bathing water quality in England is high, with major improvements seen in recent years, the statement continued. In the early 1990s, for example, just 28% of bathing waters met the highest standards in force at that time. Based on data from 2019, 98.3% of bathing waters now meet the minimum standard, with 93% reaching the highest standards of Excellent or Good.

Monitoring of bathing water sites resumed as normal this year.

A Government spokesperson said:

“The quality of bathing waters in England has improved significantly in the last 20 years. The latest data from 2019 shows that that 72% achieved the highest standard of Excellent, while 98.3% passed the minimum standard.”

Water UK: "article is misleading and paints a distorted picture of bathing water quality in this country"

Water UK, the organisation which represents all the UK water companies, said the companies “are proud of their record on bathing water with great strides made over the last 20 years.”

Water UK said the artificial placement of the UK in the table reflected the absence of data from 70% of sites due to Covid restrictions, rather than actual performance.

In a letter sent to the Guardian newspaper, Christine McGourty, Chief Executive, Water UK said:

“Your article UK ranked last in Europe for bathing water quality in 2020 (1 June 2021) is misleading and paints a distorted picture of bathing water quality in this country. The UK’s position in the European Environment Agency’s table simply reflects the fact that the Environment Agency did not collect data from 70% of UK sites last year due to Covid restrictions, rather than the quality of the water.”

“In reality, UK bathing water quality is a significant success story with a record 93% of English bathing waters classified as either Good or Excellent in 2019 – the last time a full set of data was available. Water companies are committed to going even further with a record £5billion being spent on environmental improvements between 2020 and 2025. Even more progress could be made with Government intervention to tackle the remaining, harder sources of bathing water pollution like slurry from fields and dog mess.”