If you missed our #BBCPanorama on Severn Trent last night it's on iplayer here: https://t.co/T74FEpioEA

Tonight on @BBCCountryfile we’re Rambling for @BBCCiN with four remarkable young people. We’re learning about the difference that charities part-funded by Children In Need have made to their lives. Please join us at 6.05pm on BBC1 and give generously if you’re able x

(Not an ad btw - I have no financial interest in the company and posting of my own accord. But I have been a customer since their early days & believe in what they’re trying to do. Normally very difficult to find out where fish has come from!)

Good to see the https://t.co/KzoT7vYYQJ market back online. I love the idea of being able to buy fresh, seasonal fish from specific British day boats online. In my opinion there isn’t enough transparency in the seafood industry & this is a rare - the only? - site of this kind.

Another brilliant @AnthonyNolan Supporter Awards this year. So many inspiring people going the extra mile to provide hope, time and lifesaving treatment for others. Could you join the stem cell register and save a life? Find out here: https://t.co/WbCSEAFX61 #anthonynolanawards

We stood on this for our initial sewage @BBCPanorama in 2021, first revealing the widespread illegal dumping of sewage. As the new Tideway ‘super sewer’ doesn’t extend this far up the Thames I assume raw sewage (+wet wipes) is still dumped nearby. How long til the reef re-forms?

(ENDS: My personal opinion… this is a small example of why, in these uncertain times, we need to find a future-proof way to fund the BBC and investigative journalism. Ok, I’ll get back down off my high 🐴! Have a good day…)

So, unsurprising newsflash: SCRUTINY WORKS! I can only do this by working with whistleblowers and good people who are willing to quietly and confidentially engage with me to expose wrongdoing. If that might be you - get in touch: SpeaktoJoeC@pm.me

But there's a big loser: the environment, as well as all of us who rely on it for food, water, recreation etc etc... Do we now have a full & accurate picture of pollution? I’m not sure. But I think, thanks to our reporting, campaigners & public pressure, more is being reported.

Mostly water companies mark their own homework on pollution incidents (EA attended 12% in 2024). Covering-up pollution can help water companies hit targets (and get £ rewards) but also suits the Environment Agency / the government who can say pollution has fallen on their watch.

Maybe 2024 was just a very wet year? Yes, wet years do tend to mean more pollution incidents. But I think there's much more at play here, as explained. And the change seems to date to our approach, not the weather.

TODAY... we now have the figures for 2024 - the first full year of data since the Panorama. The numbers speak for themselves! UU reported a whopping 376 incidents! Has pollution got worse? Maybe. But I suspect they’ve just been more honest in what they record and when.

Insiders told me that because of our Panorama investigation the company was now reporting pollution incidents when they’d previously been able to get away without doing so in many cases. Again, UU denied this was the case.

(geeky point but the numbers in the charts are mostly incidents per 10,000km sewer, which is the metric Ofwat uses. The total number of United Utilities pollution incidents in 2023 was actually 243, up from 157 in 2022) RIGHT, stay with me... nearly there...

In other words, almost from the moment we approached the company they started reporting more pollution incidents for the last few months of 2023. Such that the numbers for the whole year (which had been on target until then) suddenly shot up… Coincidence? I think not!

But look what happened once we’d called out UU and the EA (we approached UU in Oct 2023 and broadcast in December). Partial data but you can see that after our approach the reported incidents (orange) suddenly rose above the Ofwat target line (blue).

If you didn’t see the Panorama I should say that United Utilities denied covering-up pollution incidents. The EA didn’t explain their performance (or give an interview!) but they said they took their responsibility to protect the environment ‘very seriously’.

And the evidence (incl insider testimony) suggested the environmental regulator @EnvAgency wasn’t just failing to attend most incidents, they were accepting some of UU’s pollution coverups, contrary to their own written guidelines and procedures.

I felt that United Utilities (UU) had been reporting suspiciously low numbers of pollution incidents for yrs. They outperformed the pollution incident targets set by @Ofwat in 9 out of 10 years between 2013-2022. And beating the target can = £millions in financial rewards/profit

Let’s look at a particular company & a number you may not have noticed in today’s news (376... why? Read on) 2yrs ago I wanted to know if the water company @unitedutilities was covering-up pollution incidents. So I made a @BBCPanorama investigating them...

Seen the headlines today about the significant rise in sewage pollution incidents? I’m not so sure pollution has SIGNIFICANTLY increased… I suspect it may have been this high (or higher!) for years but we didn’t have a true picture of what’s going on. A short thread 🧵👇