UNITED Utilities Water Limited pleaded guilty to the offence of failing to obtain a permit to release fish into inland waters. Consequently, it has been fined £60,000, plus a £2,000 victim surcharge and £24,098.06 in costs for the offence.

The sentence marks a regulatory milestone as the 1st time a water company has been sentenced under The Keeping and Introduction of Fish (England and River Esk Catchment Area) Regulations 2015.

Whilst conducting a scour valve test on High Rid Reservoir United Utilities released over 30,000 fish stranding them in the too small and unsuitable environment of Bessy Brook. They quickly brought in a contractor to rescue the fish and in total approximately 18,000 fish were returned to High Rid Reservoir.

Scour valves are essential components in pressurised water systems like reservoirs, and it is important they are maintained and tested regularly. However, the high-speed discharge killed or injured many of the fish, with some bodies found embedded in bridge walls approximately 2 feet above the water’s surface, others had missing scales and protruding organs.

Environment Agency officers attended Bessy Brook on:- 13 December 2024, after receiving reports of dead fish in the area. Photographic and video evidence as well as water samples were taken and used to establish there were no pollutants in Bessy Brook. United Utilities Water Limited said it believed a large school of roach may have entered the scour pipework in response to threat from birds looking to feed.

The court heard in mitigation the steps that United Utilities Water Limited had taken to prevent this from happening again and confirmed that a subsequent scour valve test had been successfully completed. They also explained a voluntary donation of £500,000 had been given to Groundwork Greater Manchester for proposed work to Middle Brook Restoration.

However, the Environment Agency said the water company did not have a permit to introduce fish in such numbers to the downstream watercourse. The introduction of 34,000 fish met the criteria for ‘Category 2’ harm, meaning there was a ‘significant adverse impact on animal health.’

Water Industry Regulation Manager for the North West at The Environment Agency, Andy Brown said:- “With this regulatory 1st, we are letting water companies know they must abide by all legislative requirements. The Environment Agency expects full compliance from water companies and are committed to taking robust enforcement action when we see breaches like this. United Utilities Water Limited has now paid the price for failing to obtain all relevant permits, while our hard-working officers will continue to do all they can to prevent future harm to the environment.”

Water Minister Emma Hardy said:- "This incident by United Utilities is shocking and should never have happened in the first place. The company has to be held responsible for its actions and this £60,000 fine does exactly that. Our reforms will create a new stronger regulator for the industry, with powers to do MOT-style checks on water assets, preventing failures like these from happening.”

This sentencing comes as the Environment Agency continues to hold water companies to account to protect people, wildlife and Britian’s precious ecosystems. The environmental regulator has completed 10,000 water company inspections this year, resulting in thousands of improvement actions and upgrades to infrastructure.

If members of the public see dead fish, signs of fish in distress or evidence of water pollution they should report it to the Environment Agency’s incident hotline immediately on:- 0800 807060.