Dear Mr Logan,

Thank you for your email of 5 September to the Acting National Statistician regarding comments by the former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, that drew comparisons between England and Scotland’s water industry regulation.

I respond on behalf of the UK Statistics Authority’s Regulation Committee, which oversees the independent regulator, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). Whereas normally the Chair of the Authority would respond to your concern, she has instead asked me to respond in her place, to avoid the risk of a perceived conflict of interest with another role.

Judgements about regulation of the water industry and broader environmental policy are rightly for you and your colleagues in the UK Parliament and devolved assemblies to consider. However, we have looked at some of the statements made as part of our role enforcing the Code of Practice for Statistics; a full list of these is enclosed in Annex A.

In brief, we consider that these statements lacked enough transparency about their sources to be verified, and that the broad evidence did not support them. Without appropriate discussion of the limitations of some of the more specific figures quoted, they run the risk of misleading the public.

As you point out, the then-Secretary of State said several times that water pollution and water quality are worse in Scotland than in England. He made these claims repeatedly in the House of Commons, as well as in broadcast interviews and online. We also note his letter of 24 July to Stephen Flynn MP published on X, which cites a range of statistics in response to the dispute over his claims.

The table of figures appended to the letter is not relevant to water pollution and water quality, but in the body of his letter he further claimed, without providing a source, that in 2023-24, there were 35.8 pollution incidents per 10,000km of sewerage network in Scotland, and 35.4 in England and Wales combined.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told us that its source for Scotland was an analysis of Scottish Water’s annual report, and for England and Wales, Ofwat’s water company performance report, wherein pollution incident rates are broken down by company. The sector average given for both England and Wales combined is 35.42. These water companies’ territories do not neatly match national boundaries, so it is not simple to calculate pollution incidents in England alone.

Underlying regulatory data on pollution incidents are not yet available for Wales or Scotland, although an Environmental Standards Scotland report claims Scottish Water has a lower incident rate (36) than English water companies (41), when including incidents from water supply assets. However, there are many differences in monitoring and reporting of pollution incidents data, so the Independent Water Commission (IWC) cautions against making these comparisons between countries. It is important to provide this context when referring to them in public debate.

The IWC concluded its review of the water sector on 21 July, and in its final report there are several sets of statistics directly relevant to water quality and other environmental data. It would have greatly improved public understanding to draw upon these figures, given their relevance, quality, and importance to the Government’s stated ambitions. The figures show broadly that Scotland has a similar or better share of bathing and surface water sites that meet good or excellent standards for water quality. The OSR has published a further analysis of this topic, which I enclose in Annex B.

The Authority expects that ministers take care to avoid using data that is overly selective or missing appropriate context. Based on the statements made without discussion of their context, sources, and limitations, there is the potential for people to be misled about English and Scottish water quality and infrastructure. As former Chairs have said, omitting this kind of information can damage public trust in the data, so we encourage those speaking on behalf of Government to ensure statistical statements are presented clearly and transparently, in a way that supports public understanding.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Dame Carol Propper
Chair of the Regulation Committee

 

Annex A

• “[…] you were just hearing about Scottish Water, they’re nationalised, pollution in rivers in Scotland is worse than in England”
  Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, BBC One, 20 July
• “In Scotland they have a nationalised water company, but pollution levels in Scotland are worse than they are in England“
  Channel 4 News, 21 July
• “Scotland has a nationalised water company… and water pollution is worse than in England as a result”
  House of Commons, 21 July and republished online at X.com
• “… under the nationalised model in Scotland, pollution is worse, not better.”
  House of Commons, 21 July
• “Official statistics […] show several areas where Scotland’s water quality underperforms relative to England.”
  Letter to Stephen Flynn MP, 24 July
• “There were 35.8 incidents per 10,000km of sewer in Scotland versus 35.4 incidents per 10,000km of sewer in England and Wales reported in 2023-24.”
  Letter to Stephen Flynn MP, 24 July
• “OFFICIAL: The SNP are managing water pollution in Scotland even worse than the Tories did in England”
  @SteveReedMP on X.com, 25 July
• “Levels of pollution in England are bad enough, but under the SNP in Scotland they are even worse”
  House of Commons, 4 September
• “I have published the data and I stand by it: pollution under the SNP in Scotland is even worse than it was under the Tories in England.”
  House of Commons, 4 September

Annex B

OSR statement on statistics concerning aspects of water in Scotland and England

 

Related links

Seamus Logan MP to Emma Rourke – statements on water quality