Breakdown: Key figures from Ofwat’s investigation into Southern Water

The notice of Ofwat’s proposal to impose a record penalty on Southern Water for its mismanagement of its sewage treatment plants and misreporting of performance, details two years of investigation. The proposal, which is now subject to consultation, sets out findings from Ofwat’s own probe and the internal investigations carried out by Southern Water. Below are some of the key facts and figures from the report.

• £37.7 million – Penalty issued by Ofwat against Southern Water -the equivalent of 6.7% of the wholesale wastewater arm’s turnover for 2017-18
• £3 million – Amount the fine was reduced to once Southern Water’s wider settlement package was agreed
• £123 million – Returned to customers through their bills over the next five years. This is made up of:
  • £91.2 million – Penalties Southern Water avoided during 2010 – 2017
  • £32 million – Further payments demanded by Ofwat payments as recognition of the serious failures
• 991 – Issues Southern Water had identified as of January 2019 which compromised (or were seen as potentially compromising) Environment Agency permit conditions, across 245 of its wastewater treatment works – 650 of which had already been resolved. The bulk of these can be broken down into:
  • 182 – issues with monitoring equipment and systems used to monitor performance at wastewater treatment works
  • 147 – issues relating to a lack of inaccurate signage
  • 87 – issues with controlling the flow of effluent
  • 61 – issues with sample points at wastewater treatment works – for example, lack of access for samplers and incorrect locations specified
  • 58 – issues with copies of permits, for example, missing pages or information and incorrect details
  • 56 – issues with the deterioration and standard of screening devices and their maintenance
  • 51 – issues with insufficient capacity within storm tanks, creating a risk around premature spills to the environment
  • 48 – issues with the maintenance and cleaning of storm tanks, resulting in large amounts of debris and sludge remaining within tanks
• £26 million – Capital costs Southern Water identified resulting from its permit compliance investigation
• 99 – Instances (out of a total of 584 events) in which Southern Water identified it was ‘highly probable’ that an Artificial No Flow Event had been implemented. This practice is described by Ofwat as a deliberate practice in which staff ensured there was no effluent available to be sampled during an Operator Self Monitoring inspection, resulting in an automatic compliant verdict being recorded
• 71 – Instances (out of the 54) where there was ‘medium probability of an Artificial No Flow Event having been implemented
• Two – Previous occasions Ofwat has taken enforcement action against Southern Water – a £20.3 million fine in February 2008 for deliberate misreporting of customer service performance data and section 19 undertakings accepted in October 2011 for leakage failures