Rejected petition: change legislation protecting water industry CEO's from criminal prosecution
Rejected on
The Water company CEO's and operational directors are not subject personally to prosecutorial criminal proceedings for any acts of pollution caused by their company negligence. To increase environment protection and clean up rivers, they must be held liable at all times instead of the company name.
Parliament must ensure a greater compliance for pollution prevention across the water industry that has been legislatively omitted since 1989 at the enactment of water privatisation. Water company directors have enjoyed immunity from personal prosecution in the criminal courts. Convictions for an Industry related crime would bring disqualification for any director and such a decision would bring a severe deterrence across all water companies and force compliance at all levels of management
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
The Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 introduced new powers that made water company executives personally criminally liable in specific regulatory circumstances.
The act introduced measures that make water company executives liable where:
• They impede or obstruct an investigation into pollution incidents, including where that obstruction happened with their consent or because of their neglect. The maximum penalty is up to two years’ imprisonment and/or a fine. These powers came into force in April 2025.
• They fail to publish compliant pollution incident reduction plans (and later implementation reports). The first plans were due by 1 April 2026, and implementation reports from 2027.We are not clear what action you are seeking that is different to what is already in place.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.