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<p>The Government has made it clear that water companies must urgently tackle sewage
overflows. This is set out in the Storm Overflows Reduction Plan, which represents
the largest investment programme in water company history. Through increased monitoring
and reporting requirements introduced in the Environment Act 2021, and priorities
set through Ofwat as part of the Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat, regulators and
government will hold water companies to account. The Environment Agency and Ofwat
have recently launched the largest criminal and civil investigations into water company
sewage discharges ever, at over 2200 treatment works, following new data coming to
light as a result of increased monitoring. Since 2015, the Environment Agency and
Ofwat have brought 59 prosecutions against water companies, securing fines of over
£144 million.</p><p>Water companies have performance commitments set by Ofwat that
they need to meet. These include leakage and wastewater treatment work compliance.
They face automatic financial penalties when these are missed. In November, Ofwat
announced that almost £135 million would be returned to customers as a result of companies
underperforming against their performance commitments.</p>
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