The headline in the Guardian was clear ‘the UK ranked last in Europe for bathing water quality in 2020’. The European Environment Agency report put UK at the bottom of its list of reporting countries.

However, as Defra & Water UK were quick to point out Covid limited the ability of UK to complete the normal monitoring programme. Defra said ‘It is not the case that water quality at bathing sites has suddenly declined. Rather, due to lockdown restrictions the Environment Agency had to pause water sampling for much of the 2020 season to adhere with social distancing and to protect the safety of field, office and laboratory staff. Bathing waters in England were therefore not classified in 2020. Bathing water quality in England is high, with major improvements seen in recent years. In the early 1990s, for example, just 28% of bathing waters met the highest standards in force at that time. Based on data from 2019, 98.3% of bathing waters now meet the minimum standard, with 93% reaching the highest standards of Excellent or Good. Monitoring of bathing water sites resumed as normal this year.’

The SWIMFO site gives bathers up to date information on bathing water quality