The Environment Agency's annual assessment has found an increase in polluting activities from most of England's water and sewage companies, with performance on pollution falling to its lowest level since 2013.
In light of the "appalling" situation, the regulator has called for the organisations' executives to face prison time if they oversee serious and repeated pollution incidents, as enforcement action and court fines for breaching environmental laws have proved to be unable to improve environmental performance.
In its report, the agency identifies 62 "serious pollution incidents" that occurred last year, up from 44 the year before, in what it describes as the worst performance on pollution seen in years.
In its conclusions, the agency rates four of the country’s nine water companies as “requiring significant improvement”, while two others, Southern and South West Water, were described by the agency as “terrible across...