The Environment Secretary yesterday refused to say how many times water bosses would have to dump sewage in rivers before facing criminal charges.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday, Steve Reed announced a crackdown to end the ‘national scandal’ of ‘stinking filth in our waterways’.
But he has refused to clarify at what point water bosses would be charged, sparking fears the plans will be ineffectual.
Mr Reed wrote: ‘Water bosses responsible for repeated illegal sewage dumping will face criminal charges. I’ll ban the payment of their multi-million-pound bonuses until they clean up their toxic filth.’
He claimed that the new Water Bill would help unlock £88billion of private investment to upgrade creaking infrastructure.
But when pressed by the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire yesterday, Mr Reed would not say what level of sewage dumping it would take for charges to be brought.
He said: ‘Bosses have got away with paying themselves tens of millions of pounds in bonuses for overseeing catastrophic failure. I want to put accountability back into the system.’
Ms Derbyshire responded: ‘From what you’ve written in The Mail on Sunday, you’re going to let them illegally dump sewage for a bit. Then when they’ve done it a few times, there might be some kind of criminal charge.’
Sir Robert Goodwill, former Commons environment committee chairman, criticised the plans, saying: ‘Put water bosses in jail? We’re already leveraging huge fines against water companies, and because of what we did in government they’re not just going to the Treasury but to flood alleviation projects.’
Water companies have dumped sewage unchecked at almost 900 spots in protected natural areas in England.
The Water Bill will require companies to install real-time monitors at every sewage outlet across the country.
It forms part of the Government’s ‘audit’ of its inheritance from the Conservatives.