Portsmouth MP Stephen Morgan has said the introduction of major new legislation to crack down on water bosses polluting Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas is the most significant increase in enforcement powers in a decade.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill has been introduced to parliament and will give regulators new powers to take tougher and faster action to crack down on Southern Water damaging the environment and failing their customers.
The Bill delivers on the manifesto pledges to clean up the water sector, including significantly increasing the ability of the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against law-breaking water executives.
It will create new tougher penalties, including imprisonment, for water executives when companies fail to co-operate or obstruct investigations.
The new legislation will also ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses if they fail to meet high standards to protect the environment, their consumers and their company’s finances.
Other measures in the Bill include severe and automatic fines for a range of offences, including allowing regulators to issue penalties more quickly, without having to direct resources to lengthy investigations.
It will also introduce independent monitoring of every sewage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within an hour of the initial spill.
Commenting, Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan said:
“After 14 years of Conservative failure, raw toxic sewage is being pumped into the water surrounding Portsmouth.
“That is why the Labour government is acting immediately to end the disgraceful behaviour of water companies and their bosses.
“Under this Labour Government, water executives will no longer line their own pockets whilst pumping out filth. If they refuse to comply, they could end up in the dock and face prison time.
“This Bill is a major step forward in our wider reform to fix the broken water system. The Labour Government will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform how the water industry is run and speed up the delivery of upgrades to Portsmouth’s sewage infrastructure to clean up our waterways for good.”
You can read about Stephen’s long track record campaigning to stop the sewage here: https://www.stephenmorgan.org.uk/backs-tough-plans-to-tackle-sewage/
