Labour’s landmark Water (Special Measures) Bill gains Royal Assent and becomes law, and introduces legislation to crack down on bosses polluting waterways in Enfield North

·         Introduction of major new legislation for the water sector will deliver the most significant increase in enforcement powers in a decade

·         Water (Special Measures) Bill hands new powers to regulators to ban bonuses and impose tougher penalties for law-breaking, including imprisonment for water bosses

·         The Labour Government has introduced major legislation to crack down on water bosses polluting Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas - the most significant increase in enforcement powers in a decade.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill has been granted Royal Assent and is now law and gives regulators new powers to take tougher and faster action to crack down on Thames Water damaging the environment and failing their customers.

The Bill delivers on the manifesto pledges to clean up the water sector, including significantly increasing the ability of the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against lawbreaking water executives. It creates new tougher penalties, including imprisonment, for water executives when companies fail to co-operate or obstruct investigations.

The new legislation also bans the payment of bonuses to water bosses if they fail to meet high standards to protect the environment, their consumers and their company’s finances.

Other measures in the Bill include severe and automatic fines for a range of offences, including allowing regulators to issue penalties more quickly, without having to direct resources to lengthy investigations. It also introduces independent monitoring of every sewage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within an hour of the initial spill.

Feryal Clark MP, MP for Enfield North, said:

“After 14 years of Conservative failure, raw toxic sewage is being pumped into the River Lea in Enfield North.

“That is why the Labour government has introduced immediate action to end the disgraceful behaviour of water companies and their bosses.

“Under this Labour Government, water executives will no longer line their own pockets whilst pumping out this filth. If they refuse to comply, they could end up in the dock and face prison time.

“This Bill is a major step forward in our wider reform to fix the broken water system. The Labour Government will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform how the water industry is run and speed up the delivery of upgrades to our sewage infrastructure to clean up our waterways for good.”