The government has conceded it has made no assessment of the impact from dumping sewage pollution in shellfish waters.
The admission comes despite figures revealing more than 80,000 sewage spills took place in shellfish waters during the last three years.
The worst company was United Utilities, which serves the northwest of England and released untreated sewage from storm overflows into designated shellfish water 39,664 times between 2020 and 2022. Sewage was spilled by the firm for more than 300,000 hours over the period.
Fishermen have been forced to catch shellfish further ashore in some parts of the country, including Langstone harbour in Hampshire, to ensure their catch is not polluted. Sewage pollution can raise the spectre of E.coli poisoning and norovirus for people eating contaminated shellfish.
However, Rebecca Pow, the water minister, in a written answer to parliament, said: “We have not produced an impact assessment specifically on the impact of sewage dumping by water companies on shellfish.”
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Pow said the government was monitoring for E.coli in 101 shellfish waters in England, and had identified 63 areas that are of significant economic concern.
Analysis of Environment Agency data, published last month by the Liberal Democrats, shows that South West Water was the second worst polluter of shellfish waters. The company dumped sewage in the Fal Estuary in Cornwall 117 times, for almost 2,500 hours.
“This is a national scandal. The government has literally no idea how damaging these sewage dumps are. Shellfish could be swimming around in filthy water and ministers are utterly clueless. This is a farce,” said Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, who posed the written question to Pow.
The true figure of how many spills have affected shellfish waters will be much higher, because not all storm overflows are monitored. Currently, 91 per cent are monitored, but the figure was much lower between 2020 and 2022.
Concerns over the health of shellfish have risen in the agenda in recent years, prompted in part by the mysterious deaths of thousands of crabs and lobsters along the Teesside coast, from around October 2021. Scientists have not yet been able to identify the cause.
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Sewage spills from storm overflows, which act as relief valves for the sewer network at times of heavy rainfall, declined by 19 per cent last year across England.
However, the decrease for sewage dumps into shellfish waters was slower, at just 15 per cent. In total there were 24,255 spills into shellfish waters last year.
The Lib Dems, which have made sewage pollution a campaigning priority, are calling on the government to take action to stop sewage spills this summer. The party demanded a halt to releases in shellfish waters be made a priority when parliament returns next week.
Southern Water, which spilled sewage into waters home to shellfish 4,041 times last year, has come under fire this week for not knowing the volume of sewage it is spilling. Like other water firms, it only records the number of spills and their duration.
United Utilities has been criticised by water campaigners this week too, after The Guardian reported that Steve Mogford, the former CEO, received £1.4 million for selling his shares in the company before retiring at the end of March.
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United Utilities said: “We are committed to delivering a step change in performance, having reduced the operation of storm overflows by a third since 2020, and we know there is much more to do.”
Defra said: “This government is the first to take such comprehensive action on storm overflows – and our new Plan for Water sets out the increasedinvestment, tougher enforcement and tighter regulation to tackle this issue.” South West Water said: “We are reducing the use of storm overflows and our plan is working but there is more to do.”
Water UK was contacted for comment.
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