Corporate report

Environment Agency corporate scorecard 2024 to 2025 - quarter three

Updated 7 May 2025

Applies to England

The corporate scorecard 2024 to 2025 quarter 3 (Q3) starts 1 October 2024 and ends 31 December 2024. The year end is 31 March 2025.

1. Number of properties better protected from flooding

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
94,902	96,272	113,272	Amber	Green

Commentary

During quarter 3 of 2024 to 2025, there were 847 properties better protected from flooding and coastal erosion by schemes including:

• Hull River Defences (Yorkshire Area): 420 properties
• Sheepscar Beck Refurbishment (Yorkshire Area): 255 properties
• Peckham Rye Flood Alleviation Scheme (Kent and South London Area): 153 properties

This takes the cumulative total since April 2021 to 94,902 properties. We are currently forecasting that we will achieve the cumulative target of 113,272 by end of March 2025. Our annual target for 2024 to 2025 is 25,000, we have achieved 6,630 to date and we are forecasting that we will achieve this target.

Properties protected

2024 to 2025 programme cumulative target = 113,272

Number of properties protected each quarter

Quarter	Total
Q1 2023 to 2024	61,228
Q2 2023 to 2024	67,734
Q3 2023 to 2024	71,563
Q4 2023 to 2024	88,272
Q1 2024 to 2025	91,433
Q2 2024 to 2025	94,055
Q3 2024 to 2025	94,902

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
We will ensure projects receive approval for full business case to enable them to begin construction as planned.	project executives and managers	31/03/2027

2. We maintain our flood and coastal risk management assets at or above the target condition

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
92.2	94.5%	94.5%	Red	Red

Commentary

Environment Agency owned and maintained high consequence asset condition for quarter 3 is 92.2% at target condition. This is an increase of 0.1% from 92.1% at the end of quarter 2. Quarter one was also 92.2%. The limited movement in the number does not reflective the volume of work undertaken to get this stabilisation of asset condition position this year.

Quarter 3 has been a wet autumn, with a succession of low pressure systems in September bringing exceptionally heavy rainfall to southern and central England. This was followed by Storm Ashley in October and Storm Brent in November which brought heavy rain, snow and strong winds. During Storm Darragh in December some areas experienced 50mm of rain in a 24 hour period on already loaded catchments. The quarter ended with significant snow fall across much of England. During quarter 3 of 2024 to 2025 there were 107,702 properties protected from flooding from flood defences.

As we end the quarter with more storms, the Environment Agency has not had any reports of asset failures which have resulted in flooding. Assets have stood up well. There may be some damage to assets which the Environment Agency will inspect and assess once the river levels have subsided.

In the spending review 2024 (SR24) we have prioritised investment in repairing and restoring critical assets. This includes investing an additional £36 million in 2024 to 2025 and £72 million in 2025 to 2026, to hold asset condition at 92%. Longer term funding decisions will be made at SR25.

Percentage of our flood and coastal risk management assets at or above the target condition

Quarter	% Actual (rounded)	% Target
Q1 2022 to 2023	91.8%	98%
Q2 2022 to 2023	93.9%	98%
Q3 2022 to 2023	94%	98%
Q4 2022 to 2023	94.5%	98%
Q1 2023 to 2024	93.8%	94.5%
Q2 2023 to 2024	93.5%	94.5%
Q3 2023 to 2024	93.3%	94.5%
Q4 2023 to 2024	92.6%	94.5%
Q1 2024 to 2025	92.2%	94.5%
Q2 2024 to 2025	92.1%	94.5%
Q3 2024 to 2025	92.2%	94.5%

Number of high consequence assets passing

At or above required target condition (Environment Agency)	Below required target condition (Environment Agency)
36,376	3,089

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Repairing and maintaining flood defence assets remains a corporate priority.	Deputy Director Engineering and Technical Assurance	31/03/2025
Ensuring mitigation measures are in place for below required condition assets to manage risk pending repairs.	Deputy Director, Local Operations	31/03/2025
Reducing the backlog of asset repair assessments.	Deputy Director, Local Operations	31/03/2025

3. Innovation actions delivered in flood and coastal resilience to adapt to a changing climate

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
94%	80%	80%	Green	Green

Commentary

This measure tracks provision of adaptation and resilience actions through the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation programmes. The programmes are overall on track with this quarter’s performance figure slightly increased from last quarter.

The progress figures are based on project performance as of quarter 2 2024 to 2025. Progress assessments are based on detailed one to one project feedback and quarterly reporting from all projects:

• 2 projects are off track this quarter (2 projects now on track from last quarter, 1 new off track project and 1 unchanged off track project)
• 2 Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation programme projects are off track out of a total of 25
• 1 is due to a reduction in project scope due to the construction aspect no longer being achievable within the project lifetime (Project Groundwater: Lincolnshire)
• 1 is for significant uncertainty which remains from last quarter about project expenditure - along with additional resource pressure which the programme is currently mitigating via its support framework on behalf of the project (approximately £1.3 million land purchase for Our Future Coast, Wyre)

Percentage of actions completed or on track

Quarter	% Actual	% Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	88%	80%
Q2 2024 to 2025	91%	80%
Q3 2024 to 2025	94%	80%

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Continued engagement with project sponsors to ensure project priority.	programme executive	31/03/2027
Ongoing project monitoring via quarterly reporting and project one to ones.	programme manager	31/03/2027

4. Resilience in our capacity to respond to incidents

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
Amber	Green	Green	Amber	Amber

Commentary

This measure demonstrates the Environment Agency’s capability to respond to flooding and other environmental incidents with sufficient resources in a timely and effective way.

Each day, if we are in incident mode, response cells around the country indicate their resilience based on availability of response staff and equipment:

• a green response denotes a specific cell has the staff and resources available and doesn’t compromise the health, safety and wellbeing of those involved - an example would be staff are able to get enough rest between overnight shifts
• an amber indicates partial resilience, with critical roles covered
• a red indicates the cell is not able to function to the standards required to provide an effective response to the incident

Between October and December (quarter 3) there were 1,070 instances of response cells being scaled up across the Environment Agency. This was due to wet weather and subsequent flooding and other environment incidents over the autumn and winter period. This was an 11% increase from quarter 2 and there were 4 named storms reported during this period.

In quarter 3, 14.8% of our cells operated below optimum performance and 1.6% of cells were unable to function effectively. The rest were able to operate effectively - we therefore record our performance for quarter 3 as amber. Roles that are not available on standby have proved difficult to roster at short notice. This is due to a reduction in the available volunteer pool over the Christmas period. Some recruitment and induction activities took place over quarter 3 to provide more resilience for the incident activated roles. There is still concern that prolonged incidents would exhaust the available pools of response volunteers. We are continuing to redesign our approach to staffing incident response that will bring more resilience to our rosters.

As with last quarter, the end of year forecast remains at amber.

5. Air quality is improving

5.1 A reduction in priority air pollutants: (Sulphur oxides, SOx; nitrogen oxides, NOx; fine particulate matter, PM2.5 and non-methane volatile organic compounds, NMVOCs)

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
Data reported at Q4	Reports at Q4	4 out of 4 pollutants showing a reduction	Reports at Q4	Green

Commentary

This measure reports emissions of 4 key pollutants:

• sulphur oxides (Sox)
• nitrogen oxides (NOx)
• fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
• non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs)

From 6 key industry sectors:

• refineries
• large volume organic chemicals (LVOCs)
• metals (including ferrous, non-ferrous and surface treatment)
• large combustion plant (LCP)

and, for the first time in 2024 to 2025:

• energy from waste (EfW)
• food, drink and milk (FDM)

The measure gives an indication of the effectiveness of our regulatory work on air quality, principally the review of permits. This is in line with emerging best available techniques/standards, as well as compliance and enforcement activity and engagement with industry

The 6 sectors have recently undergone permit reviews in the last few years and we therefore predict improvements in emissions. EfW and FDM sectors concluded their permit reviews in 2024 to 2025 and are newly added.

A fifth key pollutant, ammonia, is not included in the corporate scorecard (CSC) measure as emissions of ammonia from the selected sectors are relatively small.

The permit reviews, conducted over a 4 or 5 year cycle, introduce tighter and more innovative emission control measures on operators, resulting in lower atmospheric emissions. Effective and timely reviews will lead to lower emissions for individual sectors over time. In addition, our audits and site visits ensure that operators are complying with permit condition. Our advice and guidance to sectors and operators will support the downward trend in emissions and are reflected in the measure. The shutdown or process changes of some installations, in part caused by our increased regulatory requirements, also contribute to emission reductions.

Data for this measure is reported yearly, based on annual returns from the industries being monitored. Changes in emissions tend to be longer term responses to site activities. Hence the quarter 3 emission review is qualitative only, based on our staff’s knowledge of industry activities within individual sectors. At the end of quarter 3, no significant issues were reported, suggesting that the ongoing downward trend in pollutant emissions should continue for the sectors reviewed.

The air quality measure was green in 2021 and 2022, showing a continued decrease in pollutant emissions. It was amber for 2023, when PM2.5 showed an increase. This was due to incomplete PM2.5 data returns in 2022, which resulted in an unexpected, reported reduction in emissions for that year. The reduction was not matched in 2023, although a decrease from 2021 was still noted. We expect emission trends of all pollutants to continue downwards. Our current year end forecast for 2024 is therefore green.

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Review of pollution Inventory data for 2023 to 2024, to identify greatest emitters for each of the main sectors. Review compliance of individual operators and concentrate on compliance reviews for quarter 3 to quarter 4.	Monitoring and Assessment team and sector leads	31 January 2025
Discuss CSC measure with the relevant Environment Agency sector leads, to prioritise air quality improvements for individual sectors.	Monitoring and Assessment Manager	28 February 2025
Sector plans to prioritise air quality improvements as one of their objectives for 2024 to 2025. This is already the case for the metals sector, the chemicals sector and the refineries sector. Sector leads to review ongoing activities in each of the sectors, to determine expected trends for 2024 to 2025 and to separate regulatory vs economic trends.	Sector leads	31 March 2025
Review ongoing activities in each of the 6 sectors covered by the CSC measure, to determine expected trends for 2024 to 2025. Review activities for each sector to separate regulatory vs economic trends.	Sector leads, Future Regs	31 March 2025

6. Hectares of habitat created or restored delivering environmental net gain

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
No data at Q3	Reported at Q4	1,250	Green	Amber

Commentary

Eight area teams are on track to meet or exceed their targets but 6 do not expect to meet their ambitious targets.

A number of projects are expected to only finish at the end of March 2025. Delays this year, due to adverse weather and late timing of project budgets, have pushed the finish towards the end of March. This increased the risk that we may miss our overall target. A relatively low number of 2024 to 2025 flood defence capital schemes projected to conclude this year. This, combined with difficulties providing their habitat elements, due to rising costs, legal complexities and poor weather, will push habitats created into future years. We will implement a comprehensive plan to help achieve our target for next year and beyond to ensure sustainable and measurable progress.

Hectares of priority habitat created or restored

Year	Hectares created	Target
2020 to 2021	1,897	1,200
2021 to 2022	1,111	620
2022 to 2023	823	660
2023 to 2024	1,912	1,350

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Support and guidance from Environment and Business to area teams, around promoting internally and externally our success, linked to the Nature Programme.	National Biodiversity Senior Advisor	31/03/2025

7. We protect people and the environment through effective regulation - permit compliance

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
Reports at Q4	Reports at Q4	97%	Reports at Q4	Green

Commentary

We are dedicated to being a trusted and respected regulator. Measuring permit compliance with environmental permits provides an indication of our effectiveness as a regulator. It shows how well the environment, and our communities are protected from pollution caused by regulated sites. An operator is considered compliant if assessed within the top 3 compliance bands (A-C) in line with published Environment Agency guidance on assessing and scoring permit compliance.

This measure is reported annually, and we are currently forecast to meet our challenging target of 97%. This is based on the recorded performance data as of the end of December. These sites include a range of sectors such as:

• chemicals
• combustion
• metals
• biowaste
• intensive farming
• incineration

When operators are not compliant, we use our regulatory tools and powers to bring them back into compliance for the longer term.

We ensure our regulatory compliance activities are carried out in line with risk and funding. We have tools and guidance in place to enable officers to make decisions on the most suitable compliance activities on a site by site basis.

We work in an open and transparent way with those we regulate so they understand what’s expected of them. We support operators who embrace the circular economy and implement innovative technologies, for example, transitioning to decarbonisation, whilst maintaining environmental protection.

We continue to invest in digital systems and technology, so our staff have the tools they need, so:

• it’s easier for businesses to deal with us
• for the public to find out about their environment

The data and intelligence from this analysis will help inform work planning for next year. Those industrial sectors that fall below the target will attract additional funding and regulatory emphasis to improve compliance.

Percentage of compliant regulated sites

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q4 2022 to 2023	97.6%	97%
Q4 2023 to 2024	97%	97%

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
We continue to invest in training and development of our regulatory staff. Over the next quarter we are concentrating on continuing to roll-out a new outsourced and accredited foundation training package for new regulatory officers. We are also working on establishing regulation as a recognised profession in the Environment Agency.	Deputy Director, Regulatory Resilience	31/03/2026
We will continue to establish the role of the new Chief Regulator in setting the standards for good regulation in the Environment Agency. For example, developing and establishing a control strategy framework across regulation and associated assurance framework, improving the transparency of our regulatory activity.	Deputy Director, Regulatory Resilience	31/03/2026
We will develop and pilot new ways of working to target and assure the effectiveness of our regulatory interventions.	Deputy Director, Regulation Operations Portfolio and Deputy Director, Regulatory Resilience	01/10/2026
We will continue to invest in new and improved systems. For example, our Regulatory Systems Programme, as well as ongoing support for the legacy systems on which our regulatory teams rely to enable effective regulation.	Deputy Director, Future Regulation	Ongoing

8. Reduce incidents from sites we regulate

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
165	150	<150	Amber	Amber

Commentary

This measure sets a ceiling target for incidents from permitted sites and activities. It concentrates on activities we regulate directly through permit and regulatory compliance. The ceiling target is based on average serious incident numbers from 2018 to 2022 and has been set as the baseline. Since the ceiling target was set the number of permits has increased by over 7%. This makes our ceiling target harder to achieve as there are more sites and activities that can contribute serious and significant incidents to the total. We are assessing what this change may mean for our ceiling target in the future.

The number of serious (category 1 and 2) environmental incidents from permitted sites and activities remains above our ceiling target. This is likely to remain there for year end. Incidents from biowaste treatment and metals recycling sectors remain steady. Incident numbers originating from intensive agriculture, food and drink sectors remain low. We continue to see high numbers of incidents from the landfill, water company and non-hazardous waste sectors.

At landfill sites, extended periods of wet weather, as we experienced early in 2024, often cause a higher number of odour issues. This is due to an increase in gas and leachate generation. We have more regulatory officers inspecting water company waste water assets and attending pollution incidents. This is identifying more serious and significant incidents and driving increased incident numbers.

There has been an increase in fires at non-hazardous waste sites, we are looking for the root cause of the increase.

There were peaks in incidents originating at both water company sites and non-hazardous waste sites in the summer months of 2024. An increase in amenity incidents (reports of odour, noise or flies) from non-hazardous waste sites is expected. Warmer weather means people are spending more time outside and the risk of reporting incidents is greater. In the summer, lower river flows and more people using our rivers mean that water company discharges are likely to be seen and reported.

Across all sectors we continue to work with industry to prevent incidents and to capture learning when and where they do occur. We have invested in incident reduction training and updated guidance for our regulatory staff. We have trained more officers to identify the source of amenity incidents and remain attentive on water industry regulation. The increase in fires is guiding our work planning for sectors affected.

We have reviewed our ongoing actions against work we are doing to increase regulatory effectiveness and have developed these accordingly to reduce the likelihood of incidents.

Number of incidents against target

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2023 to 2024	133	150
Q2 2023 to 2024	127	150
Q3 2023 to 2024	130	150
Q4 2023 to 2024	142	150
Q2 2024 to 2025	135	150
Q3 2024 to 2025	165	150

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
We will continue to work to update and modernise our permit stock. For example, updating sector permits to align with new BAT (Best Available Technique) standards, legislative updates and learning from incidents. Permit reviews for non-hazardous waste installations are due to be completed by end March 2025. Our bespoke waste operation permits review started in April 2024. The aim is to vary them to modern standards and link them to our appropriate measures guidance.	Regulatory Deputy Directors	Ongoing programme
We will continue to invest in updated regulatory officer training. This is to support our officers and give them knowledge and confidence in permit compliance and environment incident risk reduction. This is happening across all the regimes we regulate. We have redeveloped new regulatory officer training with external providers. The first external accredited courses will be presented to new Water Industry and Enforcement officers in January 2025. This is a positive step towards professionalising our regulatory workforce, improving quality and consistency of training and reducing the burden on area teams.	Regulatory Deputy Directors	Ongoing programme
We are improving how we learn from incidents so risk reduction actions can be shared across our teams and with businesses. We are using these insights to update guidance for business sectors to align with updated standards and sector specific action plans. Waste glass appropriate measure guidance was published in 2024.	Regulatory Deputy Directors	Ongoing
We are challenging water companies to go further with their own Pollution Incident Reduction Plans.	Regulatory Deputy Directors	Ongoing
A new Chief Regulator for the Environment Agency, supported by a Chief Regulators group will work to encourage continuous improvement across all our regulatory activity. This includes incident risk reduction; work to set standards for enabling compliance across all the sectors we regulate and leading a professional and confident regulatory workforce.	Chief Regulators group Deputy Directors	ongoing programme
We continue to work closely with industry to reduce incidents. Specifically on landfill incidents where we have seen increased incidents. Landfill and deposit for recovery (DfR) teams are working with the sector group to prioritise proactive landfill regulation. This will ensure sites operate in accordance with permit conditions and management plans to minimise uncontrolled emissions leading to odour. The teams are also prioritising waste acceptance at the right class of landfill or DfR site through targeted waste acceptance/misdescription audits. This is a joint approach with frontline hazardous waste leads to deal with the illegal disposal and misdescription of waste.	Environment and Business, Waste and Recovery teams	Ongoing programme

9. Sewage treatment works brought into compliance

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
Reports at Q4	Reports at Q4	90%	Green	Amber

Commentary

We continue to concentrate our regulatory efforts on bringing water company sites that pose the highest risk to the environment into compliance. By the end of quarter 3, we have made good progress, carrying out 3,288 inspections of:

• wastewater treatment sites
• pumping stations
• storm overflows

This is over 3 times more than the 967 carried out at this stage last year.

We have recruited several hundred water industry regulatory officers, with new staff currently undergoing intensive training. The higher number of better trained officers mean we will be able to take more action to bring sites back within compliance. It is the water companies’ responsibility to comply. Failure to do so when actioned may lead to enforcement action under our enforcement and sanctions policy. We are also increasing the number of enforcement staff working on water industry regulation. We are working with government on new enforcement powers through the Water Special Measure Bill. This is to ensure companies comply and increase the deterrence effect and reduce future offending.

Number of sewage treatment works

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q2 2024 to 2025	81	105

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Increased inspections and data analysis are identifying more permit breaches at water company wastewater discharge sites. We are taking action to require them to rectify the breaches including compliance action plan, compliance notices and other enforcement options. Also, we will soon be able to use new Water Special Measures Bill powers to deter offending and increase compliance.	Compliance, Incidents and Enforcement Manager - Water Industry Regulation	Ongoing

10. Water company compliance inspections

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
3,246	1,828	4,000	Green	Green

Commentary

This corporate scorecard measure reports on the number of onsite inspections completed at:

• permitted waste water treatment works
• sewage pumping stations
• combined sewer overflows operated by water and sewerage companies

The target number of inspections for 2024 to 2025 is 4,000, which is a 3 fold increase on around 1,300 inspections completed last year. The increased ambition has been funded by the uplift in subsistence charges for water company wastewater discharge regulation.

The quarterly breakdown of the annual target was weighted towards the latter part of the year, with a greater number of inspections in quarter 3 and quarter 4. This was to allow for the recruitment and training of new regulatory officers in our area teams.

Water company regulation has been prioritised in line with our increased scrutiny of water companies. This can be seen in the consistently strong performance towards our target throughout the year. As of quarter 3 we have achieved over 3 quarters of our annual target, having completed 3,246 of our 4,000 inspections. This puts us significantly ahead of the quarterly profile, with some areas having already reached their end of year target. We expect to stay on target for this final quarter, as our new regulatory officers develop their skills and help carry out this work. These regulatory inspections are part of a package of measures to encourage improvements in water company environmental performance. These regulatory inspections demonstrate our comprehensive regulation of this sector.

Water company inspections completed against target

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q2 2024 to 2025	1,932	686
Q3 2024 to 2025	3,246	1,828

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
On target, we will continue to monitor and track progress.	Measure owner	31/03/2025

11. Local authority planning applications influenced

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
97.4%	97%	97%	Green	Green

Commentary

Performance in quarter 3 was 96.6% against a target of 97%, although year to date performance remains green at 97.4%. In this quarter there were 36 planning decisions that weren’t in line with our advice;

• 30 where we had raised objection
• 6 where a condition we had requested wasn’t included in the final decision

Of the objections raised:

• 28 were made due to flood risk grounds
• 2 related to water supply and pollution control matters

Only one of the objections related to a major development where the proposal was for the creation of 10 or more houses. All the other objections related to minor development.

The planning conditions that weren’t included in the final planning decision related to flood risk and land contamination issues. There was a mix of reasons why our advice was not followed. These include:

• responses seemingly not being received by local planning authorities (LPAs)
• planning application case officers applying their own interpretation of the National Planning Policy Framework’s (NPPF) requirements - for the provision of flood risk assessments to support applications in flood risk areas

We will follow up on these 2 issues with the relevant LPAs.

Most planning decisions are made in line with our advice. Where we do have to raise objections, we work hard with developers and the local planning authorities to try and resolve issues. Of the decisions recorded in quarter 3, there were 163 planning applications where we’d initially raised objections, but by engaging with developers we managed to resolve our concerns. This helped the creation of 12,151 new residential units should all these planning permissions be implemented. These residential developments, if built, would help contribute over £2 billion to UK economic output.

We are one of several consultees who provide planning advice. Nevertheless it appears to represent an excellent return on the Environment Agency’s £2.4 million quarterly spend on this vital work.

Percentage of decision notices where local planning authorities have accepted our representations

Quarter	Total
Q1 2023 to 2024	97%
Q2 2023 to 2024	97%
Q3 2023 to 2024	97%
Q4 2023 to 2024	97.4%
Q1 2024 to 2025	96.4%
Q2 2024 to 2025	97.8%
Q3 2024 to 2025	97.4%

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Area Sustainable Places teams to contact LPAs to understand why some replies are not being received and work with them to address this issue.	Area Sustainable Places Team Leaders	31/03/2025
As required, Area Sustainable Places teams contact LPAs to remind them of the requirements set out in the NPPF. This is regarding the need for flood risk assessments for all planning applications for development in flood risk areas.	Area Sustainable Places Team Leaders	31/03/2025

12. Percentage of Development Consent Orders (DCOs) for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) that we successfully influence

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
100%	97%	97%	Green	Green

Commentary

In quarter 3 there was only one development consent order decision made by the Secretaries of State. We had requested the inclusion of 7 requirements to prevent the development from adversely affecting the environment. All 7 requirements were included in the final decision.

Percentage of DCOs

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	100%	97%
Q2 2024 to 2025	100%	97%
Q3 2024 to 2025	100%	97%

13. Industry compliance reduces carbon emissions

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
79%	80%	80%	Amber	Green

Commentary

The Environment Agency is regulator and administrator for the UK regulations that incentivise carbon emission reductions and increase energy efficiency from business and industry. The measure shows compliance with the statutory deadlines for net zero regimes and demonstrates our effectiveness as a regulator.

Recent performance is measured against the compliance deadline for around 9,000 qualifying companies to notify us that they have completed an accredited energy efficiency assessment. This is required by the current phase of the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS). Work continues at pace to drive up compliance via enforcement activities and to refine the number of expected compliance returns.

As stated in quarter 2, we faced multiple challenges in the build up to the compliance deadline. This included:

• delays to legislation and publication of our ‘how to comply’ guidance to customers
• the compliance deadline being pushed back by 6 months
• delays to the implementation of the new IT system

This compressed the amount of time customers could submit their notification of compliance.

In this context 79% is excellent performance and enforcement and compliance activities will continue to improve compliance levels during quarter 4. We are confident we will reach our target for year end.

Percentage of compliant returns

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	95%	80%
Q2 2024 to 2025	74%	80%
Q3 2024 to 2025	79%	80%

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
We will continue with our proactive engagement activities to achieve this measure. This involves engaging with the regulated community throughout the year, providing advice and guidance, managing reporting systems and compliance accounts to enable organisations to comply.	Manager, Operations, Regulation, Monitoring and Customer (RMC)	31/03/2025

14. Number of farm inspections

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
3,394	3,103	4,000	Green	Green

Commentary

We continue to work on achieving the target of 4,000 agricultural inspections per annum. We are on track to achieve green status on this target by the end of the year.

The agriculture regulatory taskforce is now in its third year and has a stable skilled workforce which is helping maintain trajectory to achieve the target. Some areas will continue to be affected by turnover of staff that could influence local performance. It is not anticipated that this will have a bearing on the overall national target. Where vacancies occur, we consider backfill on a case by case basis. This is to ensure resource is targeted in the highest risk areas with the highest risk farms.

By quarter 3, we have issued 5,537 improvement actions to farmers and 4,739 actions were confirmed as completed. We continue to prioritise following up overdue actions to ensure farmers take measures necessary to protect the environment. We have started escalated compliance or enforcement proceedings against 488 farmers. This is where enforcement response includes:

• anti pollution work notices (APWN)
• civil sanction – fixed monetary penalty (FMP)
• formal caution
• groundwater notice
• prosecution
• silage, slurry and agricultural fuel oil (SSAFO) notice and warning letters

As the number of farm inspection increases, we also expect to see a rise in enforcement action. To mitigate the effect on carrying out inspections, additional resources have been established to support agriculture officers. Further work needs to be done to determine the balance of inspection, follow up compliance and enforcement work. This is to enable best outcomes with the resources available and work across areas to standardise this approach.

Number of farm inspections

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	1,028	977
Q2 2024 to 2025	2,302	1,984
Q3 2024 to 2025	3,394	3,103

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Continue to ensure that agriculture farm inspections are prioritised and that any Agriculture Regulatory Inspection Officer vacancies are prioritised for backfill.	Area directors	31/03/2025
Ensure that actions issued to farms during inspections are completed in a timely manner.	Area directors	31/03/2025
Understand the balance of inspection, follow up compliance and enforcement work to enable the best outcomes with the resources available. Work across Areas to standardise this approach.	Area directors	31/03/2025

15. We stop high risk illegal waste sites

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
67	62	90	Green	Green

Commentary

The Environment Agency stopped 23 active high risk illegal waste sites during quarter 3. This takes the total number stopped to 67 which is above target for the year to date.

Our actions are concentrated on targeting sites that pose the greatest threat and risk to:

• our communities
• our environment - and which harm the interests of legitimate business

Throughout the quarter we continued to identify new sites operating illegally. However, we know that waste crime is an underreported crime, and that the true number of illegal sites is likely to be higher.

Number of high risk illegal waste sites stopped

Quarter	Total	Ceiling target
Q1 2022 to 2023	188	195
Q2 2022 to 2023	180	190
Q3 2022 to 2023	190	185
Q4 2022 to 2023	175	180
Q1 2023 to 2024	167	164
Q2 2023 to 2024	167	161
Q3 2023 to 2024	134	154
Q4 2023 to 2024	141	151
Q1 2024 to 2025	20	17
Q2 2024 to 2025	44	41
Q3 2024 to 2025	67	62

16. Net zero carbon by 2030

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
181,434	188,023	<250,697	Green	Red

Commentary

We are within the quarter 3 year to date carbon target. However, we have seen an increase in our overall emissions (6%) compared to our position in quarter 3 last year. With the scheduled construction work remaining on the programme, we are forecasting to be up to 15% over target at year end. In the first 5 years of our net zero journey, we are forecasting to have reduced emissions by 2%. In the next 5 years we need to achieve 45% to hit our 2030 milestone.

Construction

We are within our emissions budget at quarter 3 (89%). Average carbon intensity from construction projects is lower at 2.71 tonnes (t) of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent (e) per £10,000 in quarter 3 compared to 2.84 (tCO2e) per £10,000 in quarter 2. Solent and South Downs (SSD) area have made the biggest reduction in decarbonisation, whereas Yorkshire are the most intense. Data from completed carbon assessments makes up 13% of the Construction carbon data, an improvement from 3.5% in quarter 2. The rest is estimated.

Cars

Emissions decreased by 8% compared to quarter 3 year to date 2023 to 2024, but remain slightly over the quarter 3 year to date target. Our lease fleet is now 65% zero emission. However, we still have much higher hire mileage than pre-lease car policy change, with 3.2 million hire miles in environment management alone. Lease emissions on average are 32g per km compared to hire car emissions at 130 g per km.

Commuting and office use

We have seen a slight increase in the carbon emissions from energy use in our offices. This is mainly due to increase in electric vehicle charging at sites (accounting for 14% of electricity this year compared to 11% last year).

Computers

Carbon emissions from IT are significantly over budget, doubling (107% increase) compared to quarter 3 year to date 2023 to 2024.

Pumping

Compared to last year (data March to October) there’s been a 6% decrease in rainfall. This is likely contributing to the decrease in pumping related emissions, where we see a general correlation between high rainfall months and greater emissions.

Other direct

This category including:

• National Laboratory Service (NLS) operations
• boats
• LIDAR aeroplanes
• operational liquid fuel use

Quarter 3 shows a 56% increase compared to last year. There was a significant issue with the biomass boiler at the Starcross lab which took a long time to be repaired. This resulted in back up oil use leading to much higher emissions.

Other indirect

This category has seen significant increase in emissions (58%.) including:

• train
• air travel
• hotel stays
• operational waste

Carbon emissions from train travel have increased 31%, travelling an additional 1.4 million miles. Air travel miles and emissions have decreased by 30% from quarter 3 last year.

Quarterly Carbon dioxide equivalents emissions

Quarter	Total (tonnes)
Q1 2022 to 2023	53,901
Q2 2022 to 2023	121,056
Q3 2022 to 2023	181,032
Q4 2022 to 2023	295,832
Q1 2023 to 2024	100,031
Q2 2023 to 2024	139,658
Q3 2023 to 2024	171,387
Q4 2023 to 2024	269,339
Q1 2024 to 2025	78,658
Q2 2024 to 2025	126,176
Q3 2024 to 2025	181,434

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Understand the variances in carbon intensity for the capital programme provision across different areas. Share the best practise from SSD area with other areas.	Executive Director, Local Operations	31/03/2025
The actions in the net zero roadmap should be refreshed. All relevant Directors responsible for different emissions areas will need to engage with the Sustainable Business team (to update their actions) to co-ordinate this refresh. This is in line with the recommendations from the recent Internal audit on net zero.	Executive Director, Strategy, Transformation and Assurance (STA)	End of quarter 2 2025 to 2026

17. Efficiency savings - cash releasing grant in-aid and Efficiency Savings - charges

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
Measure under development	Measure under development	£15 million	Measure under development	Measure under development
Measure under development	Measure under development	£8 million	Measure under development	Measure under development

18. We have a diverse workforce

The percentage of our staff who are from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
Reports at Q2 and Q4	Reports at Q2 and Q4	7.6%	Reports at Q2 and Q4	Red

Black, Asian and minority ethnic background staff as % of all staff

2024 to 2025 target = 7.6%

Quarter	Total
Q4 2022 to 2023	5.3 %
Q2 2023 to 2024	5.7%
Q4 2023 to 2024	6.1 %
Q4 2024 to 2025	6.4 %
Q2 2024 to 2025	6.2%

The percentage of senior staff who are female

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
Reports at Q2 and Q4	Reports at Q2 and Q4	50%	Reports at Q2 and Q4	Amber

Percentage of senior staff who are female

2024 to 2025 target = 50%

Quarter	Total
Q4 2022 to 2023	48%
Q2 2023 to 2024	47.2%
Q4 2023 to 2024	45.7%
Q2 2024 to 2025	46%

19. Minimised time lost to work related injuries

Q3 Actual	Q3 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q3 Status	Year end forecast
0.10	0.11	<0.11	Green	Green

Commentary

There were 7 lost time incidents (LTIs) this quarter, 3 of which were reportable to the Health and Safety Executive under RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations):

• 2 events related to slips, trips and falls
• 2 events related to contact with stationary objects
• 2 related to musculoskeletal/manual handling
• 1 exposure to chemicals

The LTI frequency rate (based on 12 months data and allowing for hours worked) has reduced from 0.11 in quarter 2 to 0.10 this quarter. Whilst positive, this reduction is a small variation. There were 24 LTIs in the last 12 months at the end of quarter 3 as opposed to 26 at the end of quarter 2 .

We continue to monitor and review every lost time injury. We act if we identify lessons for the business, as well as acting swiftly on new incidents to share early lessons with the business to raise awareness.

Lost time incident frequency rate per 100,000 hours

12 month rolling average

Quarter	Number
October 2022	0.06
November 2022	0.08
December 2022	0.08
January 2023	0.10
February 2023	0.10
March 2023	0.10
April 2023	0.09
May 2023	0.10
June 2023	0.09
July 2023	0.10
August 2023	0.10
September 2023	0.11
October 2023	0.10
November 2023	0.10
December 2023	0.10
January 2024	0.09
February 2024	0.10
March 2024	0.10
April 2024	0.11
May 2024	0.11
June 2024	0.11
July 2024	0.11
August 2024	0.11
September 2024	0.11
October 2024	0.11
November 2024	0.10
December 2024	0.10

Number of LTIs

Quarter	Number
Q1 2023 to 2024	3
Q2 2023 to 2024	7
Q3 2023 to 2024	6
Q4 2023 to 2024	8
Q1 2024 to 2025	3
Q2 2024 to 2025	6
Q3 2024 to 2025	7