The public’s legal right to know what damage water companies are causing to the nation’s waterways is at risk, campaigners have warned. Fish Legal has written to Environment Secretary Therese Coffey demanding that polluting companies continue to provide details of sewage discharges to Britons on request under the Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill.
Anglers are petitioning for Parliament to debate whether it will retain the Environmental Information Regulations which safeguards the public’s right to access environmental information from privatised utilities.
At least 100,000 signatures are required for the debate.
Penelope Gane, head of practice at Fish Legal said: “This hard-won legal right changed the game when it came to exposing the murky world of private water companies’ operations. For the first time, anglers and other members of the public were able to directly access previously hidden data.
“This has enabled the exposure of the scandal of illegal discharges of sewage. If the case law that established this right or the regulations themselves are effectively deleted, water companies would once again be able to pollute without public scrutiny.”
The Environmental Information Regulations is one of 1,781 laws being reviewed for repeal by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) under the REUL bill.
The right was established by Fish Legal in 2015 following a six-year legal battle.
Ms Gane said: “Given that Defra backed the water companies in our legal battle, we’d expect them to do so again.
“The water industry is a powerful lobby and we’re sure they’d be delighted to see the public’s right to details of what they are putting into our waters and what they are taking out quietly disappear.”
Angler Glyn Marshall warned being able to get detailed information about water company pollution directly from them is a right that needs to be protected.
Mr Marshall, of the Worcester Angling Society, said: “Without the law behind us, my angling club would have to rely on the Environment Agency or Severn Trent Water’s goodwill to find out what’s going wrong at Worcester sewage works.
“We can’t rely on either.”
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