Thu, 15 May 2025

Thu, 15 May 2025 Welsh Water fined £1.3m for 'negligent' monitoring

A judge says the firm has been negligent in its failures at 300 sites across Wales.

* Welsh Water has been fined £1.35m for failing to properly monitor water quality at 300 different sites.
* The company pleaded guilty to 15 charges relating to over 800 offences in 2020 and 2021.
* District Judge Gwyn Jones said the company's negligence had "caused significant embarrassment" to its staff and that there was a lack of reporting which undermined the effectiveness of self-reporting system.
* Welsh Water blamed the failures on a reorganisation, the implementation of a new system, and the Covid pandemic.
* The regulator, Natural Resources Wales (NRW), expressed concerns to Welsh Water but did not receive responses on numerous occasions.
* Judge Jones concluded that there was no deliberate concealment of unlawful activity and that the company's failure was due to organisational failure, particularly with the introduction of a new system without proper stress-testing.
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