05 Dec 2023

The government has published the latest set of bathing water quality compliance reports for England. The press release shows that 96% of English bathing waters meet required quality standards, a fall from 97% last year, while those rated ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ dipped from 93% to 90%. In Scotland, SEPA said 98% had again attained ‘sufficient,’ with […]

05 Dec 2023

96% of bathing waters in England have met minimum standards, with 90% of bathing waters in England being rated as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, continuing to show an overall boost in water quality over the last decade, Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) have announced. This compares with just 28% being rated as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ […]

22 Nov 2023

The majority of popular inland bathing spots in England have been found to be unsafe for swimming, according to a report by Surfers Against Sewage. In a survey of a representative sample of popular swimming and water sports locations, 60% were found to have pollution at unsafe levels, the annual report from the campaign group said. Forty […]

26 Sep 2023

Coastal waters and estuaries have been included in the government’s plan to tackle sewage pollution, in a win for campaigners who threatened legal action, ENDSreport has said. The UK Government issued a press release that stated: Government expands plan to tackle storm overflows, including all coastal and estuary sites Marine protected areas and shellfish water […]

20 Sep 2023

Defra has published a summary of responses and the government response to the recent consultation on continuous water quality monitoring and event duration monitoring. The consultation sought views on the government’s proposals to enhance the monitoring of storm overflows and final effluent discharges into watercourses Some key points from the government’s response Urban Pollution Management […]

30 Aug 2023

National Highways (NH) has published its 2030 Water Quality Plan. It sets out a high-level programme of work to mitigate all high-risk outfalls by 2030. There are 1,236 outfalls & soakaways identified by NH as having a potential high risk of pollution. Of these, 145 have a verified high risk of pollution and therefore require […]

15 Aug 2023

A coalition of 15 leading environmental groups has written to the Government urging it not to delay or cut back on environmental spend at PR24 to improve water quality. The organisations include the Wildlife Trusts, Rivers Trust, Surfers against Sewage, RSPB England, Friends of the Earth and Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust. They were responding to […]

09 Aug 2023

Water Supply and Quality: New Briefing Notes available CIWEM’s water supply and quality specialist panel has put together four new briefing notes on water quality issues. They are a source of information compiled by experts to better understand the key concepts and issues related to these specific water quality topics. You can find the new […]