Fact check: Most sewage spills in England may be illegal according to new research.

Majority view

Recent analyses of Environment Agency and water company data by independent researchers, the BBC, and NGOs suggest that a large majority of monitored sewage discharges in England occurred under conditions that do not meet the legal criteria for permitted storm overflows, indicating they may be illegal, but regulators have not formally classified most individual spills as illegal and the total proportion remains uncertain.[1][6][7][11]

Credible dissent

While multiple investigations and expert analyses argue that a majority of recent sewage discharges in England likely breach permit conditions and therefore may be illegal, official regulators such as the Environment Agency have so far confirmed and prosecuted only a relatively small subset of spills as illegal, and stress that in many cases there is insufficient data to determine legality spill‑by‑spill.[11][13]