£250,000 fine for Thames Water reflects new guidelines

7th October 2014


Related Topics

Related tags

  • Water ,
  • Business & Industry ,
  • Corporate fine ,
  • Prosecution ,
  • Environment agencies

Author

Reena Rampersad

Thames Water has been fined £250,000 for allowing untreated sewage to enter a brook running through a nature reserve.

The scale of the penalty imposed by Reading crown court reflected the new sentencing guidelines for environmental offences that came into force on 1 July.

The 143-acre nature reserve near Newbury, known as The Chase, is owned by the National Trust.

Thames Water pleaded guilty to allowing sewage to enter the brook from an emergency overflow pipe at its Broad Layings sewage pumping station on 2 September 2012. The Environment Agency said the discharge had been caused by a blockage in the pumps at the station on 29 August 2012 and that Thames Water had failed to act on the alarms system to attend and unblock them.

The raw sewage had a severe impact on aquatic life in a 600-metre stretch of Chase brook. “Water quality testing revealed that there were high levels of both ammonia and e-coli in the brook,” said agency officer Matthew Rice. Ammonia is toxic to aquatic organisms and low dissolved oxygen levels starve creatures of oxygen.

Under the new sentencing guidelines, there are four categories of offence, which relate to the level of harm caused, with offences causing the greatest harm likely to attract a larger fine.

The seriousness of an offence is also related to the offender’s culpability – that is, was it deliberate, reckless or negligent, or was the offence committed with little or no fault on the part of the organisation.

In this case, the judge, recorder Arbuthnot, said: “The parties agree that the level of culpability is negligence and with which I agree. With regards to harm I find that this is a category 3 offence but at the severe end.”

The starting point for fines for negligent, category 3 offences – generally those that have a minor or localised impact – committed by firms with a turnover of at least £50 million is £60,000, rising to £150,000. The courts, however, can impose financial penalties outside this range for large companies by considering whether the fine is proportionate to the means of the offender.

If a company has a large profit margin relative to its turnover, for example, courts can increase the penalty. The agency reports that Thames Water’s profit for the year ending 31 March 2014 was £346.7 million.

Rooma Horeesorun, prosecutor for the agency, said of the penalty imposed on Thames Water: “In addition to the culpability and harm factors, the judge took into account the financial circumstances of the defendant.”

Thames Water has since replaced both pumps at its Broad Layings station and sealed the emergency overflow pipe into Chase brook. A spokesperson said: “We very much regret this incident and have since carried out a thorough clean-up of the watercourse and funded an ongoing post for a National Trust warden.”

Subscribe

Subscribe to IEMA's newsletters to receive timely articles, expert opinions, event announcements, and much more, directly in your inbox.


Transform articles

The time is now

Dr Julie Riggs issues a call to arms to tackle a modern-day human tragedy

15th March 2024

Read more

The UK’s new biodiversity net gain (BNG) requirements could create 15,000 hectares of woodlands, heath, grasslands, and wetlands and absorb 650,000 tonnes of carbon each year.

13th March 2024

Read more

Campaign group Wild Justice has accused the UK government of trying to relax pollution rules for housebuilders “through the backdoor”.

14th February 2024

Read more

Digital tracking, packaging data delays and new collections provide a waste focus for this edition’s environmental round-up by legislation expert Neil Howe

28th November 2023

Read more

Environmental crimes could result in prison sentences of up to 10 years and company fines of 5% of turnover under a proposed EU law agreed by the European parliament and council.

21st November 2023

Read more

Stuart McLachlan and Dean Sanders discuss their book: The Adventure of Sustainable Performance: Beyond ESG Compliance to Leadership in the New Era.

14th November 2023

Read more

Media enquires

Looking for an expert to speak at an event or comment on an item in the news?

Find an expert

IEMA Cookie Notice

Clicking the ‘Accept all’ button means you are accepting analytics and third-party cookies. Our website uses necessary cookies which are required in order to make our website work. In addition to these, we use analytics and third-party cookies to optimise site functionality and give you the best possible experience. To control which cookies are set, click ‘Settings’. To learn more about cookies, how we use them on our website and how to change your cookie settings please view our cookie policy.

Manage cookie settings

Our use of cookies

You can learn more detailed information in our cookie policy.

Some cookies are essential, but non-essential cookies help us to improve the experience on our site by providing insights into how the site is being used. To maintain privacy management, this relies on cookie identifiers. Resetting or deleting your browser cookies will reset these preferences.

Essential cookies

These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website.

Analytics cookies

These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors to our website and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works.

Advertising cookies

These cookies allow us to tailor advertising to you based on your interests. If you do not accept these cookies, you will still see adverts, but these will be more generic.

Save and close