Thames Water has been ordered to pay a record-breaking £20.3 million at Aylesbury Crown Court for polluting the River Thames with 1.4 billion litres of raw sewage - the largest penalty ever handed down to a water utility for an environmental disaster.

Steve Robertson, who became Chief Executive Officer of Thames Water in September 2016, attended the hearing in person. The utility now has 21 days to pay the £19.75 million fine plus costs in Aylesbury Crown Court for offences at six facilities in the Thames Valley during the period 2012-14.

The water company admitted water pollution and other offences at Aylesbury and Little Marlow sewage treatment works in Buckinghamshire and Didcot and Henley sewage treatment works in Oxfordshire, along with a large sewage pumping system in Littlemore in Oxford.

The company was prosecuted for each of the six pollution offences collectively by the Environment Agency. The prosecution saw 6 separate cases – which the Environment Agency said had caused “widespread, repeated, sustained and avoidable pollution” at a number of sites from 2012 to 2014 - brought together in one hearing at Aylesbury Crown Court. 

Investigations carried out by Environment Agency officers revealed a catalogue of failures by TWUL management. This involved repeated discharges of untreated or poorly treated raw sewage into rivers, disregarding risks identified by their own staff and failing to react adequately to thousands of high priority alarms used to alert them to the serious problems.

The Court heard how for weeks, untreated sewage, amounting to millions of litres per day, was diverted to the rivers and away from the treatment process, although the incoming sewage flow was well within the designed capacity of the treatment works. In many instances less than half of the incoming sewage was sent for treatment.

Anne Brosnan, Chief Prosecutor for the Environment Agency said:

"Thames Water was completely negligent to the environmental dangers created by the parlous state of its works. Our investigation revealed that we were dealing with a pattern of unprecedented pollution incidents which could have been avoided if Thames Water had been open and frank with the Environment Agency as required by water company industry protocol."

The Court heard that the number of pollution incidents at Thames Water sites has halved since 2013.

In a statement, Steve Roberston said:

“We deeply regret each of these incidents at six of our sites during the period 2012-14. We asked for these incidents to be considered and sentenced together, because it was clear that our performance in this part of our region, at that time, was not up to the very high standards that we and our customers expect."

“Since then we’ve reviewed how we do things at all levels and made a number of key changes. These have included increasing the numbers of staff in key operational roles and investing heavily to improve reliability. As a result, our performance has significantly improved. We understand our huge responsibilities to the environment, have learned from these serious events, and continue to invest at the rate of around £20 million a week on continually improving our service to our customers and the environment.”

The Thames CEO added:

“We will be holding open days at each of these sites later this year so our customers and stakeholders can see the improvements we have made and speak to the operational teams who work hard to maintain high standards at the works. In addition, we will be adding £1.5 million to our Community Investment Fund, ring-fenced for projects to improve the river, its wildlife and surrounding environment at the affected locations."

Imposing the fine, Judge Francis Sheridan said the scale of the problem was such that it must have been known up the chain of command, saying it was “inconceivable” that the individual managers had all made the same decision to run pumps at half levels.

Describing it as a "shocking and disgraceful state of affairs". the Judge said it should not be cheaper to offend than to take appropriate precautions.

Commenting on the level of the fines, Judge Sheridan,said that the fines must be met by Thames Water, and not be passed onto customers; it was the company, not the customers, who broke the law.

Thames Water had already been fined £1million and £380,000 in 2016 for similar problems in 2013 at 2 of their other sewage treatment works at Tring in Hertfordshire and Princess Risborough in Buckinghamshire in earlier cases brought by the Environment Agency.

Sir Tony Redmond, London and South East Chair for the Consumer Council for Water, commented: 

“These were extremely serious and unacceptable failings by Thames Water, which had a devastating impact on the natural environment. We believe a fine of this magnitude sends a very clear message to the company that it needs to take seriously its environmental responsibilities. Thames Water says it has learned lessons and we’ll be watching closely to make sure it acts on these.”

Responding to news of the fine, Labour London Assembly Spokesperson for the Environment, Leonie Cooper AM, said:

“The fact that the Thames Water CEO attended Court in person is a welcome acknowledgement that they let down the people they are supposed to serve. A sewage spill of 1.5 billion litres has had an absolutely horrendous impact on the environment, with birds and fish being killed, and water poisoned.

“Judge Francis Sheridan said the scale of the problem was such that it must have been known up the chain of command. It does appear that the leadership of Thames Water are finally stepping up, but I hope this gigantic fine will concentrate minds further.

"This news come days after Thames Water admitted the review they promised into the floods across London before Christmas would be delayed. I have no doubt that my colleagues on the London Assembly will be keen to hear just what exactly is going on at Thames Water."