Jail Water Firm Bosses, The Royals
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| The Mouth of the River Ogmore Parker Hagarty (1859-1934) Photo Credit:The National Library of Wales [Public Domain] |
Water company bosses must be jailed for serious pollution, the Environment Agency (EA) said yesterday, as it revealed English water firms had overseen shocking levels of pollution in the past year.
The agency said water firms' performance on pollution had declined to the worst level seen in years. It is calling for chief executives and board members to be jailed if they oversee serious, repeated pollution, saying they seemed undeterred by enforcement action and court fines for breaching environmental laws.
Emma Howard Boyd, the chair of the EA, said:
"Fines handed down by the courts often amount to less than a chief executive's salary ... Investors should no longer see England's water monopolies as a one-way bet."
... Southern Water and South West Water were given a one-star rating - which means a poor performance - while Anglian, Thames, Wessex and Yorkshire were rated only two stars, meaning they require significant improvement.
The EA report said ...
The sector's performance on pollution was shocking, much worse than previous years ... Company directors let this occur and it is simply unacceptable. Over the years the public have seen water company executives and investors rewarded handsomely while the environment pays the price. The water companies are behaving like this for a simple reason: because they can. We intend to make it too painful for them to continue as they are."
... The inquiry was initiated after the water firms admitted they may have been illegally discharging sewage into rivers and seas for years...
(Sandra Laville, The Guardian, 2022)
Another matter that has been dragging on for years without any serious action being taken on the perpetrators.
*The boss of a water company with one of the worst pollution records in England has been handed more than £1m in pay and bonuses. Anglian Water's chief executive, Peter Simpson, landed a "substantial" £337,651 bonus as part of a £1.3m pay package.
The reward comes despite English water companies overseeing such shocking levels of pollution that the Environmental Agency has said bosses should be jailed for serious offences.
Anglian Water recorded nearly a quarter of all serious pollution incidents last year, according to the agency.
... Simpson's base salary rose to £531,365 in 2021-22, up from £505,277 a year earlier.
... The utility company Thames Water is also facing heat for handing its chief executive, Sarah Bentley, £727,000 worth of bonuses despite its poor performance on pollution. The bulk of Bentley's bonus will be distributed as part of a £3.1m "golden handshake" sign-on payment.
... Andrew Speke of the High Pay Centre thinktank said: "When the Environment Agency is calling for water company bosses to be jailed over their record on pollution, boards of the worst offending companies should be taking serious action ... It's time for the government to intervene."
(Alex Lawson, The Guardian, 2022)
Government to intervene? There's no chance of that.
*Water company bosses should be banned from giving themselves bonuses until they fix their leaky pipes, the Liberal Democrats have demanded.
New figures uncovered by the party found that England's water and sewage company bosses had awarded themselves about £27m in bonuses over the past two years...
This is despite reports that they allow 2.4bn litres of water to be leaked in England every day...
The Lib Dems believe a freeze on bonuses could focus minds and speed up this target.
Their rural affairs spokesperson, Tim Farron said: "It is outrageous that whilst millions of people suffer from hosepipe bans, water company execs reward themselves with these bonuses despite not even bothering to fix leaks. It begs the question: what on earth have they done to deserve these bonuses? These are the very same execs who let their companies pump raw sewage into our rivers."
(Helena Horton, The Guardian, 2022)
Nationalisation
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Grange by Derwentwater, Cumbria, Robert Gwelo Goodman (1871-1939) Photo Credit: Atkinson Art Gallery Collection [CC BY-NC-SA] |
The Labour party’s plans to renationalise water companies in England could cost the government as little as £14.5bn, according to research.
…Water UK, which represents the companies, said Labour’s plans added up to a “multibillion-pound nationalisation bill for taxpayers instead of spending that money on people’s real priorities such as hospitals and schools.”
Labour has proposed renationalising the water companies after they were criticised across the political spectrum for prioritising dividends and executive pay over preventing leaks and improving water quality.
(The Financial Times, 2019)
The Royals
Personalised exemptions for the Queen in her private capacity have been written into more than 160 laws since 1967, granting her sweeping immunity from swathes of British law - ranging from animal welfare to workers' rights.
Dozens extend further immunity to her private property portfolio, granting her unique protections as the owner of large landed estates.
More than 30 laws stipulate that police are barred from entering the private Balmoral and Sandringham estates without the Queen's permission to investigate suspected crimes, including wildlife offences and environmental pollution - a legal immunity accorded to no other private landowner in the country.
... One constitutional expert warned that the carve outs undermined the notion that everyone was equal before the law, while another recommended the monarchy review and simplify the exemptions for the sake of public transparency.
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| Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire James Cassie (1819-1879) Photo Credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums [CC BY-NC] |
... The UK government and Buckingham Palace refused to answer in detail questions about the process by which exemptions for the Windsor family were obtained. Both declined to say whether the Queen or her representatives had requested private legal immunity be written into laws.
... The most controversial exemptions ban her employees from pursuing sexual and racial discrimination complaints. Even the most modern piece of anti-discrimination law, the Equality Act 2010, is designed not to protect those employed by the Queen.
Other laws contain carve-outs exempting the Queen as a private employer from having to observe various workers' rights, health and safety, or pension laws. She is fully or partly exempt from at least four laws on workers' pensions, and is not required to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
... Dr Craig Prescott, a lecturer in constitutional law at Bangor University, said some of the exemptions risked opening the monarchy to charges of hypocrisy. The Prince of Wales had advocated protecting the environment for decades, while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge champion the Earthshot prize for solutions to urgent environmental challenges.
"If you're campaigning about the environment or conservation, and it turns out that certain laws relating to the environment or conservation - animal welfare at the very least - don't apply to your private residences, then that doesn't look good, Prescott said, "particularly if you're the only private residence in the country to which the law doesn't apply."
(Severin Carrell, Rob Evans, David Pegg, The Guardian, 2022)
Why is it that this information has only been discovered so recently?
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