Corporate report

Whistleblowing about environmental malpractice: annual report 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026

Updated 30 September 2026

Applies to England

1. Introduction

The Environment Agency is designated as a prescribed person for whistleblowing. Workers can contact the Environment Agency to raise concerns about their employer relating to:

• acts or omissions which have an actual or potential impact on the environment
• the management or regulation of the environment

This includes concerns about:  

• flooding
• pollution
• abstraction of water
• the flow of rivers
• inland fisheries and migratory salmon or trout

Under the Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017, commonly known as ‘whistleblowing’, we must act on any third-party disclosures made to us about environmental malpractice. These regulations also require us to produce an annual report on whistleblowing disclosures received by us.

This report covers the reporting period of 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.

2. How we receive reports

The Environment Agency can receive reports in a variety of ways, such as by:

• the dedicated confidential portal for whistleblowers
• phone to our customer contact centre
• the dedicated incident communication centre hotline
• email
• post
• social media
• direct contact with officers

Reports can often be about matters that are already subject to investigation or inspection at regulated facilities. All reports are treated confidentially.

3. Number of disclosures

In last year’s report, we noted a 9-fold increase in the number of whistleblowing disclosures made to us as a ‘prescribed person’ (340). This followed the introduction of our confidential reporting portal in March 2024.

Whilst this demonstrated a step change in accessibility for industry whistleblowers, users occasionally used the new portal to report matters that were not within the Environment Agency’s remit. Typically, these were environmental health matters dealt with by local authorities or not within England. Modifications were made during the year, and it was anticipated that overall figures for 2025 to 2026 would be reduced, but the number of ‘qualifying’ disclosures should remain relatively constant.

In this reporting period, we received fewer reports (257). This reflects the improvements to help ensure concerns are directed to the correct prescribed body. Of the reports received, we assessed 209 as qualifying, compared with 228 in 2024 to 2025. The waste sector accounted for the largest proportion (85).

All external whistleblowing reports are assessed and handled initially by a specialist confidential team. Once they determine that either confidentiality is no longer required, or the information has been ‘sanitised’, they pass it to the appropriate team or partner organisation. Operational teams assess these reports against, for example, criteria for attendance and known local issues. They may attend and or log them to build our intelligence picture.

The overall trend remained consistent with previous years, with most reports relating to waste activities across a variety of industry sectors. This included concerns about:

• the disposal of waste
• its treatment
• storage
• international export
• producer responsibility requirements

Around 12% of qualifying disclosures related to water pollution and 5% agriculture.

Reports that related to potentially significant environmental impact were followed up with a visit unless no further corroborating reports were received. They are however logged in the relevant systems which automatically flag should further related reports be received. There are several ongoing investigations.

Sometimes we may not be able to act on reports (or log them as a qualifying disclosure), for example:

• where they are not within our geographic or regulatory remit, in which case we may pass them to the appropriate authority
• anonymous reports that contain insufficient information for us to be able to determine that they are from a whistleblower
• anonymous reports with insufficient data for us to action and where we are unable to check or corroborate the details

In rare cases we may be limited in the action we can take if we believe that it may reveal to another party the identity of an anonymous reporter.

4. The impact on the Environment Agency

Disclosures help us meet our key priorities to:

• protect and improve water, land and biodiversity
• improve the way we work as a regulator to protect people and the environment and support sustainable growth

They can highlight:

• emerging issues that might otherwise go unnoticed
• opportunities to work collaboratively with other regulated sectors on issues such as modern slavery or health and safety concerns

Since the implementation of the whistleblowing portal in March 2024, we continue to update the reporting process. These changes focus on helping people identify how and to whom they can make qualifying disclosures.

During this reporting period our regulatory and field-based staff were provided with discreet contact cards. These are given to industry workers who raise concerns during site visits. The cards provide discrete, direct access to advice and the reporting portal, helping to protect their confidentiality.

5. When to report environmental malpractice

We are listed as a ‘prescribed person’ in the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) Order 2014. This means that you can contact us directly about environmental malpractice.

You should report environmental malpractice to us if it affects the natural environment or the management or regulation of the environment.

Find out more about what the Environment Agency is responsible for.

Find out about other ways you can report whistleblowing.

6. Contact the Environment Agency

6.1 General enquiries

General enquiries

National Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 544
Rotherham
S60 1BY

Email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

Telephone 03708 506 506

Telephone from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT) +44 (0) 114 282 5312

Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

6.2 Environment incident hotline

Environment incident hotline

Contact form https://www.gov.uk/rep...

Telephone (24 hour service) 0800 80 70 60

7. Whistleblowing by workers

This can be done in confidence through the online portal at Whistleblowing: reporting serious wrongdoing to the Environment Agency.