Anglian Water must pay £50,000 after not handing over records in sewage investigation

Anglian Water has been ordered to pay more than £50,000 after refusing to hand over records to an investigation into possible illegal sewage spills, in the first conviction of its kind.

The water company had been told to turn over the records as part of the Environment Agency (EA) investigation into all 10 water and sewerage companies for possible breaches of their permit conditions.

Water companies are permitted to release sewage into rivers and seas during exceptional circumstances such as storms, but the EA is investigating whether there have been releases outside of these times.

In May, Anglian Water was found guilty of failing, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a requirement to provide records requested by the EA between January 2022 and January 2023, but it was found not guilty on two counts of failing to provide data.

On Friday, a judge at Peterborough magistrates’ court ordered the company to pay a £25,000 fine, £190 victim surcharge and £25,000 in costs.

The company had entered a not guilty plea but District Judge Kenneth Sheraton rejected the water company’s claim that it had a reasonable excuse for non-compliance.

The EA said that it hoped the sentence “will help the regulator to bring all water companies into compliance and reduce environmental pollution”.

A spokesman for Anglian Water said the fine was “proportionate and takes into account our arguments in this case”.

They added: “Anglian Water has always maintained, and the judge concurred, that our course of action and time taken to respond with data to the Environment Agency was reasonable.

“This was reflected in the fact that we were found not guilty of the two main charges.

“While we are disappointed with the finding in relation to the first charge, the low level of sentence reflects our view that this was not a significant failure on our part.”