The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has announced that a court summons has been issued to South West Water Limited for prosecution for potential offences under section 70(1) of the Water Industry Act 1991 following its investigation into the Cryptosporidiosis outbreak event in the Brixham area in 2024.
The summons is listed on 2 October 2025 before Exeter Magistrates’ Court.
Marcus Rink, Chief Inspector of the Drinking Water Inspectorate commentted:
“The Brixham incident was serious with significant impact on the public and the wider community. Accordingly, I consider it appropriate to pass the matter to the court to consider the evidence in the public interest.”
Due to the ongoing criminal proceedings, the Inspectorate has said it will not be able to make any further comment or share any information which could prejudice the proceedings.
The outbreak in Brixham in May 2024 saw thousands of customers impacted while the water company teams worked around the clock for eight weeks to provide bottled water to thousands of customers, isolate the cause of the infection and thoroughly clean and protect its network.
In Brixham and Kingswear, water is treated at Littlehempston Water Treatment Works which takes its water from river sources near agricultural land. Because of this, South West Water says it tests every single day for the presence of cryptosporidium in the untreated water.
It is a criminal offence for a water company to supply water that is in breach of section 70(1) of the Water Industry Act 1991. The Inspectorate investigates all drinking water quality events in England and Wales and will bring prosecutions if it believes that it has reliable evidence that an offence was committed, where the company does not have a defence that it took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence, and when such a prosecution is regarded as being in the public interest.
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