Yorkshire Water

Situation

We wrote to 12 water companies in July 2024 to clarify our position on the disclosure of raw data about sewage overflows under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). We called on them to be as transparent as possible and encouraged proactive monthly disclosures of information about sewage discharges.

Several companies told us it would be challenging to publish start and stop times of discharges every month. Only two water companies confirmed that they would. We spoke to one of them, Yorkshire Water, to find out what this involved so that we can share how greater transparency is both achievable and beneficial. 

Solution

Yorkshire Water said that the challenges to publish this information are around data inaccuracies, rather than technical difficulties. Water companies hold this information and it is fairly straightforward to publish. Annually, this data set is amalgamated into the 12/24 methodology for the statutory obligation to report under the Environment Act 2021. Verifying and validating the data each month is challenging because there are large fluctuations in the volumes of discharges throughout the year. This requires procedural changes, but the benefits are improved assurance processes and a more evenly spread workload throughout the year. 

Yorkshire Water achieved this by putting extra resource into verification and validation. However, they think that this will balance itself out over the year as the monthly checks will become more streamline as data quality improves. Collating the data will become less resource-intensive and it will reduce the workload at year-end to produce their statutory report.  

The published monthly data won’t exactly match the annual EDM data provided to environmental regulators. However, Yorkshire Water hasn’t said that the information may raise questions or cause confusion and so haven’t used this as a reason not to publish. Instead, they have published it with the following caveat, which we consider to be good practice: 

“We’re constantly working to improve our data and make sure it’s accurate, but sometimes this might not be the case. Our monitors are sensitive, and they can sometimes provide readings that aren’t correct. We’re working on it and doing everything we can to improve the data we have available. This means that this data may change prior to our annual submission due to ongoing implementation of our validation and assurance processes.”

Impact 

As of 16 December, since publishing the information in September, 42 people have accessed it on Yorkshire Water’s website (approximately 170 people visit the EDM webpage monthly, but the start and stop statistics are not visited much as yet). They also signpost the webpage when people get in touch to ask for similar data, meaning that next time they can self-serve and get the data they need much quicker. 

Publishing this data means more efficient and timely information is available to the public, allowing them to participate in important environmental debates. It provides greater transparency, fostering more trust in Yorkshire Water, especially when the sector is facing pressure over their actions and impact on the environment.

Proactively publishing this information means that people no longer need to make EIR requests for this data and wait 20 days for the information, and the workload on the EIR team is reduced.