Letter to Ofwat regarding water industry category 1 incidents
Published 6 June 2025
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To: David Black, Chief Executive, Ofwat
4 June 2025
Water industry category 1 incidents
I am writing regarding the Ofwat performance related executive pay (PRP) prohibition rules.
For 2024 I understand the environment rule states that water companies should prohibit PRP where they have either:
i) Been rated 1-star by the Environment Agency Environment Performance Assessment (EPA) and /or
ii) Recorded an EPA Category 1 incident during 2024.
I am providing the Environment Agency’s verified data on Category 1 incidents, which will be included in the EPA report for 2024. The full EPA report for 2025 will be published in October 2025.
Category 1 incidents are the most serious incidents, having caused significant impacts to the environment and/or people. The water companies that had Category 1 incidents during 2024 are detailed in Table 1 below.
Your sincerely
Philip Duffy
Chief Executive, Environment Agency
Cc David Hill, DG, Strategy and Water, Defra
Table 1: verified environment performance assessment category 1 incidents for 2024
| Company | Number of category 1 incidents | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anglian Water Services | 1 | September | Peterborough |
| Southern Water Services | 1 | August | New Forest District |
| Thames Water | 7 | January | Three Rivers District |
| January | Chiltern District | ||
| February | Slough | ||
| April | Enfield London Borough | ||
| April | Sevenoaks District | ||
| November | Reigate and Banstead District | ||
| December | Runnymede District | ||
| Yorkshire Water | 1 | December | Bolton |
| United Utilities | 1 | December | Kirklees District |