Sewage pours from a manhole on Cornton Road near Bridge of Allan (Andrew Milligan/PA)

292 Tory MPs did technically vote to allow sewage dumping in rivers until 2038

By Lily Ford, PA
15:54 - February 20, 2023

A claim that 292 Conservative MPs “voted to allow sewage dumping by water companies in our rivers and coasts for at least 15 more years” invited outrage from Tory MPs when Gary Lineker quote-tweeted the Liberal Democrat’s assertion with the question: “Why on earth would you do this?”

At an Environmental Audit Committee on Wednesday, February 8, Environment Secretary Therese Coffey called Lineker “not particularly responsible” for suggesting the Tories have “legalised sewage disposal” with his tweet and maintained that discharges unlawful prior to the Environment Act 2021 remain unlawful.

Evaluation: True, technically

292 Conservative MPs did not “aye” a vote to allow sewage dumping by water companies in the country’s rivers and coasts for the next 15 years.

However, they did vote on updated environmental targets on January 25 that included a target of an 80% reduction in phosphates in rivers by 2038, which does indirectly allow the continuation of sewage disposal – an objective that the Lib Dems have labelled “pathetic”.

The facts

All raw sewage contains phosphorus, which originates from sources such as human and animal waste or detergents and food residues.

The official voting record for the UK Parliament shows that 292 Conservative MPs – including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – six members of the Democratic Unionist Party, and two independent MPs did vote “aye” on the aforementioned target, which has been spun by the Lib Dems as failing to put measures in place to stop sewage disposal in rivers and coasts entirely.

The Lib Dem stance is that phosphates “are naturally occurring minerals deriving from human waste and too much phosphate can cause a dramatic growth in algae and deplete oxygen levels when they are dumped in rivers,” according to their statement titled: “Tory MPs vote for 15 more years of sewage dumping”. The statement adds that in the last two years alone, water companies in England dumped raw sewage 775,568 times over 5,768,679 hours, which is shown by Environment Agency statistics.

The Government’s legislation details show the full UK Statutory Instrument titled The Environmental Targets (Water) (England) Regulations 2023, which in part three under waste water target does state: “The second target in respect of water is that the load of total phosphorus discharged into freshwaters from relevant discharges is, by 31st December 2038, at least 80% lower than the baseline.”

This new regulation does technically allow water sewage to continue to be dumped in rivers for another 15 years but Tory arguments, such as Ms Coffey’s, posit that the vote was actually on a targeted reduction and the Lib Dems have twisted the narrative.

While the Tories did not directly vote for allowing “sewage dumping by water companies in our rivers and coasts for at least 15 more years,” the target they have set – as opposed to trying to eradicate sewage in the UK’s freshwaters completely – does permit sewage disposal or “dumping” for at least 15 more years.

Links

Gary Lineker’s tweet (archived)

Liberal Democrat tweet (archived)

Therese Coffey speaking at Environmental Audit Committee video (archived) – from: 16:10:45.

Voting record on Environmental Targets (Water) (England) Regulations 2022 (archived)

Environment Agency statistics (archived)

Environment Agency figures for 2021 (archived) – see “EDM 2021 Storm Overflow Annual Return – summary data” pdf, table 2, total number of spill events in 2021 and total duration (hrs) of monitored spill events in 2021.

Environment Agency figures for 2020 (archived) – see “EDM 2020 Storm Overflow Annual Return – summary data” pdf, page 3, number of spill events in 2020 return and duration (hrs) of Spill events in 2020 return.

Liberal Democrat press release (archived)

The Envrionmental Targets (Water (England) Regulations 2023 legislation (archived)

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