Environment Agency is 'at a loss' at how to tackle sewage crisis, MPs say

The damning assessment was made by the Public Accounts Committee, a group of MPs designed to scrutinise government spending, in a letter from chair Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP to Environment Department (Defra) permanent secretary Paul Kissack.

It comes after PAC’s report into water regulation, which found the environmental performance of companies is “woeful” while regulators fail to hold them to account.

Sewage spills have contributed to a situation in which no single river in Yorkshire is considered to be in good overall health, while Ilkley Beach is the most polluted waterway in the country.

Consumers have been left furious as there is still a hosepipe ban in Yorkshire, with bills expected to rise by, on average, £31 a year over the next five years.

Sir Geoffrey was writing to Mr Kissack over “multiple disappointing areas in government’s response” to the PAC report.

In particular, the Tory MP cited those regarding the EA. He said: “One of the most concerning impressions we were left with was of an under-resourced and apparently directionless and demotivated Environment Agency at a loss as to how to begin to address the situation.

“We were told that, while individual EA staff were effective when they attended an incident, this was a drop in the ocean compared to what was needed on the ground.

“The fact that only the most serious (category 1) water quality incidents are deemed to warrant a site visit, and anything below a category 2 is not investigated at all means we are in a position where citizen scientists are having to try to fill in the gaps in monitoring and reporting widespread problems.”

This comes as the number of category one incidents in Yorkshire has almost trebled over the last year.

However, Sir Geoffrey said he thought these type of figures could be an underestimation.

“Indeed, we heard that to qualify as a category 1 incident an observation of dead fish had to be confirmed,” he explained.

“This means in practice that waterways which have suffered previous pollution resulting in them being unable to support a fish population cannot, by definition, be deemed to have suffered a serious pollution event.”

An EA spokesperson: “The Environment Agency takes its responsibility to protect the environment very seriously and are absolutely committed to improving water quality across the country.

"We are on track to deliver 10,000 inspections next year, using our tougher powers gained through the Water (Special Measures) Act alongside more officers and upgraded digital tools to drive better performance across the water sector.

"We also want to thank the public for calling in incidents and reassure them we respond to every incident we receive.”

Sir Geoffrey also raised issues with “gaps between the data available to water companies and the regulators which limits their ability to identify issues and act on them quickly”.

He added: “At the same time, lack of data about individual infrastructure elements that make up the wastewater system means even the water companies don’t know what they own and are responsible for maintaining.

“Without reliable and transparent data available on the problem, how can the public bodies involved hold companies to account or develop wider solutions and target them where they’re needed?”

Sir Geoffrey asked for a response from Defra at the conclusion of Sir Jon Cunliffe’s Independent Water Commission in January, is the biggest review of the industry since privatisation in the 1980s.

In its interim report, it found “deep-rooted, systemic and interlocking failures” across the water sector.

A Defra spokesperson said: "The government is taking decisive action to clean up England’s rivers, lakes, and seas.

“This includes the biggest overhaul of the sector since privatisation, securing over £104bn of investment to fix crumbling infrastructure and creating a new, single powerful regulator to hold the industry to account.