Recommendation 31

The statutory requirements on monitoring and transparency introduced by the Environment Act 2021 establish a welcome baseline. There is nevertheless scope to improve the nature of data which water companies collect about the operation of their sewerage networks, and to make it available to regulators and to the public. We recommend that Ofwat and the Environment Agency require each water and sewerage company in England to publish on its website, by the end of 2022, details of its discharge permits, its permit compliance, and full granular 15-minute data on spill duration, volume and water quality, to a standard format which facilitates easy capture and analysis by members of the public.