This information is in a much broader document covering all biodiversity indicators

‘21. Trends in pressure on Biodiversity: Pressure Indicator

Summary:   There was a decrease in the percentage of water bodies awarded high or good surface water status between 2011 and 2016, 16% of surface water bodies assessed under the WFD in England were in high or good status compared to 24% in 2011. In 2016 England adopted the new WFD monitoring and classification standards laid out in cycle 2 of WFD which may in part explain the step change in the classifications. Cycle 1 and cycle 2 are compared.’ Click here to read more

This information (page 27) is in the full biodiversity indicators report: Click to download the report

Water Framework Directive 2016 results

The 2016 Water Framework Directive classification results have been published by the Environment Agency and are available as a spreadsheet download and as an interactive map layer via The Rivers Trust’s catchment mapping portal. 

The headline changes are that a number of river water bodies at Good Ecological Status in 2016 is 14% (down from 16% in 2015). This -2% change is within the uncertainty range of the national monitoring and assessment programme but it is possible to understand more about changes over time when comparing sites which have been consistently monitored since 2009 (the baseline year):

The overall % of results (i.e. all elements across all sites) reaching good or high has improved since 2009 and some elements are showing a marked improvement:

• 6.7% more phosphate assessments are passing
• 7.6% more fish assessments are passing
• 8% more macroinvertebrates assessments now passing