Planned water law reform 'risks delaying environmental action'

Gordon McCreath and Robbie Owen of Pinsent Masons were commenting after the UK government introduced the Water (Special Measures) Bill into parliament on Thursday.

The Bill sets out a raft of measures centred around addressing the risk of pollution of rivers, lakes and seas arising from the activity of water companies in England.

Some of the provisions are aimed at bolstering existing enforcement powers enjoyed by regulators such as the Environment Agency, while others would require water companies to develop and publish pollution incident reduction plans and make disclosures about discharge from emergency overflows. Further proposals envisage the introduction of a new personal liability regime for water company directors and would further impose environmental conditions on the payment of bonuses to those directors.

Among the new governance provisions proposed, water companies would also have to involve consumers in decisions of the undertaker that are likely to have a material impact on consumer matters”. 

McCreath called on UK law makers scrutinising the Bill to more tightly define the matters that water companies will have to consult consumers on.

“The provisions are drawn incredibly widely and will need to be focused down in implementation if they are not to significantly slow down decision-making and delivery of the solutions required to protect the environment,” McCreath said.

McCreath said that while the government has focused the Bill more on ensuring there are effective sanctions to deter water companies from polluting, ministers need to give equal focus to ensuring investment in modern water infrastructure. On Thursday, environment secretary Steve Reed confirmed that the government will undertake a “full review to shape further legislation” in this respect.

McCreath said: “The Bill contains powers to hold water companies liable for pollution events, based on evidence that shows it is more likely than not than an offence occurred, rather than the usual standard of proof for criminal offences, that it is beyond reasonable doubt. That raises important questions of fairness and might lead the impartial observer to wonder if the balance between sanction and solution is being appropriately drawn. Almost all of the Bill’s measures focus on the former, but the government’s planned measures to ensure the delivery of infrastructure investment need to be progressed equally urgently.”

“Only once we move on from the still emotional debates to agree what will be done to address the problems will the necessary protection of the environment be achieved,” he added.

Owen said much of the detailed requirements water companies will face under the new Bill will be set out in secondary legislation and measures still to be consulted on. He added: “This Bill is very much only the opening skirmish and the start of the government’s plans and is symbolic of its view of the water industry and of government’s agenda going forward. The Bill is relatively short and will have been relatively easy to knock off, but officials and politicians have made it clear that there is more, much more, to come – talking of legislation to make more fundamental changes to the water industry, speed up infrastructure upgrades, deliver reliable water supply, and better tackle pollution.”