A WATER firm operating in the northwest of England may have wrongly downplayed numerous pollution incidents last year.

United Utilities is reportedly controlling evidence on pollution incidents while the agency is failing to conduct independent checks, according to a recent BBC Panorama investigation.

That allows the firm to report their own incidents as being less significant as they actually are, according to the report.

"If they [United Utilities] say attend - which is incredibly rare - we'll attend," one whistleblower at the Environment Agency told the BBC show. "If they say don't attend, we don't attend. They're effectively regulating themselves."

Panorama has obtained 200 reports about pollution incidents at United Utilities' sewage works in 2022.

Reports indicate over 60 instances where incidents were allegedly wrongly downgraded, despite potential environmental impacts.

The Environment Agency, responsible for overseeing such incidents, is said to have approved these downgrades without physically attending any of the sites in question.

These downgrades matter as they affect the company's performance metrics.

United Utilities have been hailed as the best-performing firm in England according to the Environment Agency's figures.

But their reported low pollution incidents will earn them a £5.1m reward through customer bill increases next year.

The Liberal Democrats have called for a criminal investigation to be opened, based on the BBC's findings, while Labour's shadow environment secretary Steve Reed has accused the Government of turning "a blind eye to corruption at the heart of the water industry".

The Department of the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has said that the volume of sewage being discharged into English waters is "utterly unacceptable".

(c) 2023 City A.M., source Newspaper