Defra and Ofwat warned they could face court over sewage discharges

The government, its water regulator and the Environment Agency could all be taken to court over their failure to tackle sewage dumping in England after a watchdog found failures to comply with the law.

- Helena Horton

An investigation by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) found that Ofwat, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency (EA) all failed to stop water companies from discharging sewage into rivers and seas in England when it was not raining heavily.

The OEP was set up in 2021 to replace the role the European Union had played in regulating and enforcing environmental law in the UK.

The law permits water companies to spill sewage only during exceptional circumstances such as extreme weather, but in reality human waste is routinely dumped in waterways even when it is not raining. Sewage is spilled into rivers and seas because in the UK there are combined sewage overflows (CSOs) into which water runoff from roads, sewage from homes and businesses, and "grey water" such as that from baths and washing machines all combine.

When this volume becomes too much and risks backing up into people's homes, it is instead spilled into rivers and the sea.