No penalties issued under “useless” English farm pollution laws

Last week, the Guardian reported that campaigners have called legislation designed to reduce water pollution caused by agriculture in England “useless” as data reveals there have been no prosecutions or fines issued despite 243 documented violations since 2018.

Details of the Farming Rules for Water from April 2018 can be found here.

The rules were implemented to combat agricultural pollution. According to research, runoff from agriculture is the biggest single polluter of rivers, responsible for 40% of damage to waterways.

The Environment Agency said in a statement that while there had been no fines issued under the farming rules for water legislation and no prosecutions had taken place, its records showed that 14 warning letters had been issued.