iNews: Water bosses should face jail time on top of bonus bans, campaigners say
“Plans from the Government to ban bonuses for the bosses of water firms polluting Britain’s rivers do not go far enough and chief executives should face jail time instead, campaigners have said.
The Environment Secretary, Steve Barclay, announced plans on Sunday to consult on new measures that would give the regulator Ofwat the power to block bonuses for the chief executives and directors of water companies.
It comes amid rising anger over the dumping of sewage into Britain’s rivers, lakes and coastal areas.
Campaigners told i the new measures amounted to “smoke and mirrors” and were not enough to address the scale of the problem facing Britain’s freshwaters.
They said ministers should instead be threatening water company bosses with jail time for major pollution incidents.
“The Government’s proposal on bonuses goes nowhere near far enough. A robust regulatory regime should include criminal sanctions,” said Nick Measham, chief executive of the campaign group WildFish.
Under the current law, water company bosses could technically face criminal charges for dumping sewage beyond the conditions of their permit, but this rarely happens.
Matt Staniek, founder of the Save Windermere campaign, questioned whether a “slap on the wrist” would “rectify the systemic criminality that has been demonstrated in the industry”.
Water companies are allowed to discharge sewage from their network during times of exceptional rainfall, but evidence has suggested this is happening more regularly and a number of firms have admitted to spilling sewage beyond the scope of their permit conditions.
“How quickly would we see these problems solved if water company bosses were treated in the same way that waste company bosses are? Waste company bosses go to jail when they break the law, water companies are given a slap on the wrist,” he said.
