The Urban Waste Water Treatment (England and Wales) Regulations 1994 require Defra to:

• publish a situation report on the disposal of urban wastewater and sludge
• assess compliance with these regulations in each area where wastewater is collected to be treated or discharged
• publish a report on the level of that compliance, identified reasons for non-compliance, and proposed measures to achieve compliance with these regulations

Some highlights from the report:

• In 2020, 99.8% of England’s generated load from wastewater treatment works was compliant with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations.
• 12 agglomerations, generating 98,190 PE of wastewater, did not comply with the requirements of the regulations
• In 2020, water companies produced 807,882 tonnes of sludge. 94% of sludge was reused for soil and agriculture, 3% was incinerated, and 3% was reused through a variety of ‘other’ uses
• Approximately 0.06% of wastewater was reused

The publication summarises the data collected by the Environment Agency on the implementation of these regulations for the first 12-month reporting period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

The full report can be found here.