98% Of 2,778 Serious UK Water Pollution Incidents Downgraded By Ministry, 83% w/o Site Visits
Environment Agency (EA) staff have downgraded thousands of serious pollution incidents by water companies in England without visiting to investigate, data unearthed by freedom of information (FoI) requests suggests. The figures were obtained by Robert Forrester, a whistleblower who left the agency in January and has spent nine years shining a light on the state of the water industry. His identity was revealed in the Channel 4 docudrama Dirty Business this week, and he has vowed to carry on fighting to expose the truth.
The data shows 2,778 serious pollution incidents by water companies were reported in 2024. Of these, 2,735 (98%) were downgraded to minor incidents by officials, FoI data shows. Officers only attended 496 of these before downgrading the pollution event; the rest were deemed minor events on water company evidence alone, the data suggests.
This represents nearly a 1,500% increase on the 174 downgrades in 2021, of which 60 were attended. Out of the initial 2,778 serious incidents that were provided by water companies, the EA officially recorded only 75 serious incidents, which it said was a rise of 60% from 2023.
“There is a significant increase in the serious incidents received by the agency but a huge increase in them being downgraded with no attendance by an officer,” said Forrester. “The key thing is that water companies are still controlling our attendance. As an officer with 21 years’ experience I saw it change from 12 to 15 years ago when we would actually get out on site, and we were encouraged to protect, investigate and enforce.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/01/thousands-pollution-incidents-england-downgraded-without-site-visit-data-suggests