Thames Water has seen a sustained 67% overall reduction in wet wipes being flushed down toilets, after launching a targeted customer awareness campaign, in sewer blockage hotspots across North Hampshire and West Berkshire.

New research by Thames Water reveals 15.5 million (44 per cent) wet wipe users flush them down the toilet, with more than one in six (16 per cent) doing so daily and a further 16 per cent of users doing it at least once a week.

Scottish Water has welcomed the publication by the Scottish Government of new regulations which will ban the sale and supply of wet wipes containing plastic in Scotland from 11 August 2027.

Draft Regulations laid on 16 September banning the supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic which will be signed into law today will come into force 18 months after the day on which they are made.

180 tonnes of congealed wet wipes – the equivalent to the weight of 15 double decker London buses – are being removed from the River Thames by the Port of London Authority, in collaboration with Thames Water.

A 120 tonne fatberg, equivalent in size of a blue whale, has been removed from a large trunk sewer in Oxford. Clearing the fatberg required a coordinated effort from multiple Thames Water teams and contractors, highlighting the scale and complexity of the operation.

Water UK, the organisation which represents all the UK water companies, are calling on the Government to go further and faster on in taking action on wet wipes.

The UK Government, Welsh Government, Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive have all taken the decision to proceed with legislation to ban the supply and sale of wet wipes containing plastic across the UK.

In a new report published today, the Welsh Parliament Environment Committee is calling on Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and the Welsh Government to accelerate measures to tackle pollution in Wales’ waters.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has launched a new consultation on banning wet wipes containing plastic across the UK under plans to tackle plastic pollution and clean up the country’s waterways.