Industry and other water users in Scotland who abstract, impound or discharge to the water environment are being given the opportunity to comment on a new scheme to assess compliance with environmental licence conditions.

Water Services Regulation Authority Ofwat for water and sewerage companies in England and Wales has said that latest results show the companies have delivered improvements to customer services and the environment.

Hundreds of trout have died in a major pollution incident on the Pill River in West Somerset.

Defra has  published its response to the consultation on measures to implement the Nitrates Directive. Implementation of the Nitrates Directive is a “base measure” for the purposes of implementing the Water Framework Directive.

Water industry regulator Ofwat has opened a consultation on a range of options for introducing effective market competition into the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales.

Members of the Blueprint for Water coalition have written to the Guardian newspaper describing the Consumer Council for Water's recent comment that revoking environmentally damaging abstraction licences could see domestic supplies dry up as “both alarmist and inaccurate”.

Water UK, the organisation which represents all UK water and wastewater service suppliers at national and European level, has said that required changes to abstraction licences could have a serious effect on planning for the public water supply.

The Environment Agency has prosecuted Southern Water for causing sewage to enter the Bevern Stream at Barcombe in East Sussex during September last year.