Corporate report

Environment Agency corporate scorecard quarter four 2018 to 2019

Published 21 August 2019

The Environment Agency corporate scorecard shows a high level overview of our performance against our environmental and business aims.

The scorecard is reported every 3 months to executive directors and the board within the Environment Agency. Our Corporate Scorecard enables us to monitor how well we are achieving our stated aims as set out in the Environment Agency Action plan. It is also shared with the Department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra), and is published here. Our corporate scorecard measures also contribute towards the wider Defra single departmental plan.

1. Corporate scorecard summary page

We use a red amber green system to see at a glance how we are performing. Green means we are performing at or above the target(s) set, amber means we are falling slightly short of the target and red means there is improvements to be made.

This table shows the red, amber green scores for the 12 measures plus the actual and target figures.

1.1 Protecting and improving the environment

Measure title	Units	Q4 Year to date actual	Q4 Year to date target	Year end target	Q4 year to date status
The water environment is healthier (Defra)	Kilometres	1,719	2,000	2,000	Amber
We protect people, the environment and wildlife by reducing serious pollution incidents (Defra)	Number of incidents in the last 12 months	493	400	400	Red
We create new habitats (Defra)	Hectares created	460	410	410 Hectares	Green
We reduce the number of high risk illegal waste sites (Defra)	Number of high waste sites	250	196	196	Red
We reduce the risk of flooding for more households (Defra)	Number of households better protected	193,604	185,000	185,000	Green
We maintain our flood and costal risk management assets at or above the target condition (Defra)	% of high risk assets at target condition	97.9%	97.5%	97.5%	Green
We have a first class incident response capability - number of staff trained and ready to respond to incidents (Defra)	Number of people	6,657	6,500	6,500	Green
We successfully influence planning decisions by local authorities	% decision notices successfully influenced	97.2%	97.0%	97.0%	Green

1.2 Outstanding organisation

Measure title	Units	Q4 Year to date actual	Q4 Year to date target	Year end target	Q4 year to date status	Forecast
We manage our money efficiently	% spend on budget	100%	100%	100%	Green
We reduce our carbon footprint	Tonnes of carbon dioxide	30,030	32,000	32,000	Green
We have a diverse workforce: a) The proportion of our staff are from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME)	% of workforce	4.1%	14%	14%	Red
We have a diverse workforce: b) The proportion of our executive managers who are female	% of executive manager workforce	35%	50%	50%	Red
We provide a safe place to work	LTI frequency rate per 100,000 hours	0.13	0.11	0.11	Red

Key: (DEFRA) this measure is reported to Defra on the Defra scorecard

2. The water environment is healthier

Q4 Status	Q4 actual (km)	Q4 target	Year end target (km)
Amber	1,719	2,000	2,000

In the last quarter we have worked with partners to enhance the water environment by an additional 300km. This takes the total this financial year to 1,719km, and means that we have enhanced nearly 5,000km in total. Over half of the enhancements recorded have come from Environment Agency regulatory work. This includes work tackling point and diffuse sources of pollution, by driving improvements to infrastructure and treatment facilities serving both farms and communities, urban and rural. Of particular note is the work undertaken in the catchment surrounding the River Axe Special Area of Conservation (Devon Cornwall, Isles of Scilly area) where new farm infrastructure has improved the water quality in four waterbodies.

In the North East, our partners have carried out more work on a large mine waters project achieving a further 30km of enhancements. Prolonged dry weather continues to be a concern, and our work to manage the risks arising means that some improvement work has been slowed and not all enhancement work has been reported. Brexit preparation has also impacted on this measure as resources have been diverted to carry out preparatory work. As a result we have not been able to fully achieve the challenging target we set of enhancing 2,000km.

Kilometres of rivers, lakes and coastal waters enhanced this year

Quarter	Actual km	Target km
2016/17	1,231	717
2017/18	2,038	1,500
Q1 2018/19	1,044	1,014
Q2 2018/19	1,213	1,345
Q3 2018/19	1,426	1,602
Q4 2018/19	1,719	2,000

Cumulative KM enhanced since April 2016

Quarter	Actual km	Target km
Q1 2017/18	2,127	1,814
Q2 2017/18	2,202	2,190
Q3 2017/18	2,387	2,387
Q4 2017/18	3,269	2,731
Q1 2018/19	4,314	3,745
Q2 2018/19	4,483	4,076
Q3 2018/19	4,696	4,333
Q4 2018/19	4,989	4,731

Actions

Action(s)	Owner(s)	Deadline(s)
Area leads to chase actions delivered but not reported due to prolonged dry weather and Brexit work	Area reporting leads	31/07/2019
Reprioritisation of work programmes to support delivery of outcomes where feasible	Area Leadership Teams	31/07/2019

3. We protect people, the environment and wildlife by reducing serious pollution incidents

Q4 Status	Q4 actual (+10%)	Ceiling target	Year end target
Red	493 (542)	400	400

Performance - no. of category 1 and 2 pollution incidents

The data shown here is using initial quarterly data which is subject to change. The results for the most recent quarters are likely to increase in future reports due to the inherent lag time in investigating and recording all the necessary incident details onto the reporting system.

Quarter	Cat 1	Cat 2	+10%	Q Total actual cat 1 and 2 shown	Target
2011/12 Q4	47	552	N/A	599	560
2012/13 Q4	46	485	N/A	531	532
2013/14 Q4	60	636	N/A	696	436
2014/15 Q4	56	546	N/A	602	631
2015/16 Q4	66	441	N/A	507	631
2016/17 Q4	54	441	N/A	495	553
2017/18 Q4	54	376	N/A	430	496
2018/19 Q1	62	384	N/A	446	400
2018/19 Q2	83	454	N/A	537	400
2018/19 Q3	81	449	N/A	530	400
2018/19 Q4	72	421	49	493	400

The increase in incidents in 2018/19 compared to 2017/18 is likely to be linked to the extreme high temperatures and prolonged dry weather experienced in quarter two. Incident trends will keep showing significant seasonal variations, especially as our weather patterns become more extreme. We continue to target the sectors showing the poorest performance, each sector has a Pollution Incident Reduction Plan which is updated yearly.

Illegal Waste main contributors

Quarter	Illegal waste site	Burning of waste	Unauthorised waste management activity	Fly-tipping	Other
2018 Apr - Jun	12	4	3	1	0
2018 Jul - Sep	8	5	4	5	0
2018 Oct - Dec	12	5	2	2	0
2019 Jan - Mar	11	0	2	0	1

Category 1 and 2 incidents from illegal waste management

Quarter	Total
2014 Jan - Mar	19
2014 Apr - Jun	16
2014 Jul - Sep	16
2014 Oct - Dec	17
2015 Jan - Mar	17
2015 Apr - Jun	21
2015 Jul - Sep	13
2015 Oct - Dec	14
2016 Jan - Mar	14
2016 Apr - Jun	26
2016 Jul - Sep	30
2016 Oct - Dec	22
2017 Jan - Mar	22
2017 Apr - Jun	11
2017 Jul - Sep	8
2017 Oct - Dec	10
2018 Jan - Mar	17
2018 Apr - Jun	20
2018 Jul - Sep	22
2018 Oct - Dec	21
2019 Jan - Mar	14

Water Company Main Contributors

Quarter	Water distribution system	Sewage treatment works	Foul sewer	Rising Main	Pumping station
2018 Apr - Jun	1	5	7	0	2
2018 Jul - Sep	3	10	6	2	4
2018 Oct - Dec	4	1	2	5	1
2019 Jan - Mar	1	2	3	0	2

Category 1 and 2 incidents from the water company sector

Quarter	Total
2014 Jan - Mar	13
2014 Apr - Jun	26
2014 Jul - Sep	21
2014 Oct - Dec	9
2015 Jan - Mar	11
2015 Apr - Jun	20
2015 Jul - Sep	26
2015 Oct - Dec	11
2016 Jan - Mar	9
2016 Apr - Jun	13
2016 Jul - Sep	30
2016 Oct - Dec	14
2017 Jan - Mar	5
2017 Apr - Jun	20
2017 Jul - Sep	15
2017 Oct - Dec	17
2018 Jan - Mar	6
2018 Apr - Jun	15
2018 Jul - Sep	25
2018 Oct - Dec	15
2019 Jan - Mar	8

Agriculture main contributors

Quarter	Dairy and livestock	Intensive farming	Arable and horticulture	Other / unspecified agriculture
2018 Apr - Jun	14	7	2	0
2018 Jul - Sep	7	5	2	1
2017 Oct - Dec	5	6	1	0
2019 Jan - Mar	5	4	0	0

Category 1 and 2 incidents from agriculture

Quarter	Total
2014 Apr - Jun	21
2014 Jul - Sep	15
2014 Oct - Dec	35
2015 Jan - Mar	21
2015 Apr - Jun	21
2015 Jul - Sep	27
2015 Oct - Dec	17
2016 Jan - Mar	33
2016 Apr - Jun	13
2016 Jul - Sep	16
2016 Oct - Dec	8
2017 Jan - Mar	19
2017 Apr - Jun	9
2017 Jul - Sep	15
2017 Oct - Dec	25
2018 Jan - Mar	26
2018 Apr - Jun	23
2018 Jul - Sep	15
2018 Oct - Dec	12
2019 Jan - Mar	9

Non regulated industry sectors main contributors

Quarter	Natural source	Domestic & residential	Service sector	Manufacturing	Transport	Retail sector
2018 Apr - Jun	8	6	3	2	2	1
2018 Jul - Sep	54	4	3	2	3	1
2018 Oct - Dec	2	9	2	2	2	3
2018 Jan - Mar	3	4	4	4	0	0

Category 1 and 2 incidents from non regulated industry sectors

Quarter	Total
2014 Jan - Mar	26
2014 Apr - Jun	28
2014 Jul - Sep	45
2014 Oct - Dec	21
2015 Jan - Mar	21
2015 Apr - Jun	28
2015 Jul - Sep	39
2015 Oct - Dec	19
2016 Jan - Mar	19
2016 Apr - Jun	25
2016 Jul - Sep	30
2016 Oct - Dec	19
2017 Jan - Mar	21
2017 Apr - Jun	26
2017 Jul - Sep	23
2017 Oct - Dec	13
2018 Jan - Mar	24
2018 Apr - Jun	24
2018 Jul - Sep	68
2018 Oct - Dec	22
2019 Jan - Mar	15

Which sectors make up the most number of category 1 and 2 pollution incidents over the last 12 months

Sector	Number of incidents	Cumulative %
Agriculture	59	100%
Other non regulated industry sectors	129	26%
Other regulated industry sectors	103	47%
Not identified	62	88%
Water company	63	75%
Illegal waste management	77	63%

Commentary

1. 72 incidents were recorded for quarter four 2018/19, which is in line with the incident numbers for quarter four 2017/18. Incidents across all sectors showed the usual trend of decreasing from quarter three to quarter four, other than Not Identified, which increased from eight to 17 incidents.

2. A total of 493 incidents were recorded for 2018/19 (which may rise by up to 10% when all investigations are completed), compared to 430 incidents in 2017/18. This is an increase of 23%. We exceeded our ambitious ceiling target of 400 incidents in quarter two, in part attributable to prolonged dry weather and extreme summer temperatures. However, we would have exceeded the target despite the obvious spike in incidents from natural sources, which are most obviously linked to dry weather effects.

3. All priority sectors increased their incident numbers from 2017/18 to 2018/19, except for agriculture (6% decrease) and not identified (16% decrease). Notable increases were in illegal waste management (59% increase), from 46 incidents in 2017/18 to 78 incidents in 2018/19 and other non-regulated and other regulated (48% and 24% increases respectively). Whilst weather can account for a proportion of incidents across the sectors, the data is inconclusive and other factors may play a part. It is likely that weather was a positive factor in reducing incidents from agriculture.

Illegal Waste Management: There were 14 incidents in quarter four, all of which were category two. The incidents included 11 illegal waste sites. The incidents were spread over eight out of 14 Environment Agency areas and display no discernible pattern of incident or waste type involved. Of the incidents, two offenders were given formal warnings, one was cautioned and six cases recommended for prosecution with the remainder either still under investigation or the offenders yet to be identified. There were 78 incidents in 2018/19, and most (43 incidents) were related to illegal waste sites. This compares to 46 incidents in 2017/18. Whilst illegal waste sites continue to be an issue in many areas, specific parts of country have seen a rise in illegal dumping activities, but this does not appear to be reflected in reported incidents. We continue to tackle waste crime as a corporate priority and have had significant additional government funding to explore new opportunities to prevent and disrupt waste crime which in turn will reduce incidents.

Water Company: Incidents in quarter four show a seasonal decrease from quarter three (from 15 in quarter three to eight in quarter four). The overall trend is consistent with seasonal fluctuations and annual totals show a broadly constant level for five years. Incidents in quarter four 2018/19 were caused by both clean water assets (one) and waste water assets (seven). Of the seven waste water incidents, there were three from foul sewers and two each from sewage treatment works and pumping stations. We are progressing some work streams now and in July will set up the project team, drawn from E&B and Operations, to review and improve how we regulate water company performance. We met the companies for a successful joint workshop in March where good practices were shared and actions set out to help reduce incidents. In June our Operations Executive Director will meet water company Chief Executive Officers and press the need for improvement. In addition, future work to reduce numbers may include a pollution summit, root cause analysis, a best practice workshop, closer working with Office of Water Services (OFWAT) and a letter from James Bevan to companies requesting improvement plans.

Agriculture: Quarter four shows a reduction from 14 incidents in 2017/18 to nine incidents in 2018/19. The main reason for this is believed to be due to the prolonged dry weather during 2018 which allowed farmers to enter the winter with empty slurry stores. This trend is reflected overall with a reduction from 63 incidents in 2017/18 to 59 incidents in 2018/19. None of the incidents in quarter four appear to be from full slurry stores. Two are odour issues at Intensive Farming sites, one is a leak of effluent from an Intensive farming effluent collection system and the others relate to problems with dirty water systems, plus in one case a leak from a new slurry store. Two of the dirty water incidents caused a closure of a potable water abstraction.

Other Non-Regulated sectors: There were 15 incidents recorded in quarter four of 2018/19 which is a decrease compared to the same quarter of 2017/18 (25 incidents). The incidents were evenly spread between the Domestic & Residential, Manufacturing, Service and Natural Sectors. All of the four Service Sector incidents were caused by Construction and Demolition activities with the pollutants being contaminated water and inert waste. Compared to the high number of natural incidents occurring in the summer we saw a continued decrease to only three incidents in quarter four. The incidents were due to algal activity and naturally occurring ochre. Quarter four of 2017/18 also saw incidents from the Retail (three) and Transport (four) Sectors. Overall there was a 48% increase in Other Non-Regulated incidents from 2017/18, from 86 to 129.

Other Regulated sectors and Not Identified: There were eight incidents from the Other Regulated Sectors for quarter four in 2018/19 compared with 10 incidents in 2017/18. The incidents were mainly from Waste Treatment sites (six) in the Non-hazardous and Metal Recycling sub-sectors, plus one open Landfill site and one poultry site in the Food and Drink Sector. However, comparing 2017/18 to 2018/19, there were a 28% increase in other regulated incidents from 93 to 103. There were 17 incidents where no premise was identified as the source of the pollution, compared to the 16 Not Identified incidents in quarter four of 2017/18. We saw a decrease overall from 2017/18 from 72 to 62 incidents.

Actions

Action(s)	Owner(s)	Deadline(s)
Implementing plan of short to long term initiatives as detailed in 10 April 2019 briefing, including strategic engagement by Directors to improve water company performance and practical regulatory interventions to reduce incidents.	Deputy Director - Water Quality	31/03/2020
Continuing waste crime review to improve effectiveness of interventions, developing waste crime enforcement programme, formulate enforcement strategy and reviewing governance, deployment and priorities of front line staff.	Deputy Director - Waste Regulation	30/06/2019
E&B and Incident Management & Resilience working together to identify the most appropriate way forward for reducing incidents in the ‘others’ category’ (non regulated and regulated).	Deputy Director - RS&IR	30/06/2019

4. We create new habitats

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Q4 target	Year end target
Green	460	410	410 Hectares (ha)

Quarter	Hectares created	Target
2014/15	1,869	700
2015/16	575	300
2016/17	424	400
2017/18	619	530
2018/19	460	410

A number of projects were brought forward to address a major (190 ha) shortfall which arose due to delays awaiting footpath and landowner permissions in the Humber area. The replacement projects enabled us together with our partners, to exceed our target and create 460 ha of new priority habitats (including upland, lowland wetland, woodland, and coastal habitats). We have also, again with our partners, restored 1,109 ha of similar habitat and planted 120,000 trees.

5. We reduce the number of high risk illegal waste sites

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Ceiling target	Year end target
Red	250	196	196

During quarter four the number of active high risk sites increased from 233 to 250. The total number of all active sites increased from 629 to 680 the highest since quarter three 2015/16. Four areas saw reductions in high risk site numbers in quarter four. Against local targets five areas have ended the year green, three are amber and six are red. Whilst the total number of active high risk sites remains below the April 2017 baseline, nationally we are red against the quarter four target of 196 active high risk sites.

In the last 12 month period we have stopped 52% of new sites within 90 days, exceeding our target of 45%. Conversely the number of active sites over two years old has increased to 102, almost double that at the end of 2016/17. The increased risk posed by some of these existing sites is contributing to our high risk site total. So whilst we stopped (43) more high risk sites than we found (28) during quarter four the overall number of active high risk sites increased.

Tackling illegal waste activity remains a priority. Additional staff funded by the £30m for waste crime are largely in place and we expect to see the main benefit of this resource support delivery against a challenging 2019/20 target and beyond. Further initiatives include the design and implementation of a dedicated enforcement strategy to ensure the effective deployment of resource in tackling waste crime and the commencement of a waste crime programme to streamline and maximise value from new and existing work streams, including implementation of Serious and Organised Waste Crime Review recommendations. We will work with HMRC to enforce the extended scope of landfill tax, improve our understanding of intervention effectiveness and trial new waste crime measures through phase II of the Systems Review.

Number of high risk illegal waste sites in England

Quarter	Total	Ceiling target
Baseline	380	380
Q4 16/17	253	242
Q4 17/18	259	223
Q1 18/19	255	254
Q2 18/09	260	240
Q3 18/09	233	219
Q4 18/19	250	196

Actions

Action(s)	Owner(s)	Deadline(s)
Develop, consult on and sign off ‘overarching’ EA Enforcement Strategy (with waste crime element to follow).
Develop and commence E&B Crime in the Waste Sector Programme.	Deputy Director for Waste Regulation	30/06/2019
Ensure appropriate governance of the Additional Waste Crime Funding (AWCF) resource for tackling high risk illegal sites and serious and organised crime.	Deputy Director for National Enforcement Service	30/06/2019
Commence trials of new waste crime measures and improve understanding of intervention effectiveness through Phase II of Waste Crime Systems Review.	Deputy Directors for Waste Regulation and NES	30/06/2019

6. We reduce the risk from flooding to more households

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Cumulative target	Year end target
Green	193,604	185,000	185,000

129 separate projects have better protected 38,398 homes in quarter four of 2018/19 bringing the cumulative total since April 2015 to 193,604. The largest single scheme delivered during quarter four better protected 5,464 homes in Morecambe, Lancashire.

We have exceeded the cumulative milestone target of 185,000.

The programme remains on track to better protect 300,000 homes by the end of March 2021.

Houses protected

2018/19 programme cumulative target = (185,000)

Quarter	Total
Q1 2017/18	99,651
Q2 2017/18	101,214
Q3 2017/18	107,834
Q4 2017/18	142,850
Q1 2018/19	144,210
Q2 2018/19	146,274
Q3 2018/19	155,385
Q4 2018/19	193,604

7. We maintain our flood and coastal risk management assets at or above the target condition

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Q4 target	Year end target
Green	97.8%	97.5%	97.5%

The 2018/19 target of 97.5% has been exceeded and we are making good progress toward our 2020 target of 98%. The number of Environment Agency maintained assets in high consequence systems monitored by this measure has increased by over 1,600 during 2018/19 and through effective maintenance and repair the number of assets below required condition has reduced by over 30. This improvement is despite the challenging maintenance conditions caused by the prolonged dry weather during the summer and early autumn.

Where assets are below the required condition this identifies that work is required, this does not mean that they have structurally failed or that performance in a flood is compromised. If the performance of an asset is reduced, we will take action to ensure that flood risk is effectively managed until the asset is fully repaired or replaced.

% of high consequence assets at or above the required target condition

Quarter	% Actual (Rounded)	% Target
2017/18	97.7%	97.5%
Q1 18/19	97.2%	97.5%
Q2 18/19	96.9%	97.5%
Q3 18/19	96.8%	97.5%
Q4 18/19	97.9%	97.5%

No. of high consequence assets passing

At or above required target condition (EA)	Below required target condition (EA)
31796	681

8. We have a first class incident response capability. Number of staff who are trained and ready to respond to incidents

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Q4 target	Year end target
Green	6,657	6,500	6,500

We estimate that we have 6,657 trained and capable incident staff ready to respond to incidents. This is a small reduction on last quarter’s figures, reflecting natural staff turnover and on going work to improve accuracy of the data through the establishment of consistent role leads who are better able to track and audit the information recorded.

We continue to maintain a strong pool of around 1,000 people in training who will contribute to our trained and ready workforce as they become capable and confident in their roles.

Number of staff who are trained and ready to respond to incidents

Quarter	Number
2017 Jan - Mar	6,716
2018 Jan - Mar	6,568
2018 Apr - Jun	6,568
2018 Jul - Sep	6,507
2018 Oct - Dec	6,698
2019 Jan - Mar	6,657

Actions

Action(s)	Owner(s)	Deadline(s)
We will continue to reflect the contribution of people who do not have an incident role but play a critical role in our incident response through their day job.	Deputy Director Incident Management & Resilience	31/03/2019
Ensure all incident staff continue to manage their own professional capability through the Incident Management Academy. This will also enable us to accurately capture information for this measure.	Deputy Director Incident Management & Resilience	31/03/2019
Continue to support a culture that gives the ability to balance our incident and day job roles by promoting personal resilience, and stop, slow, reset initiatives.	Deputy Director Corporate Incident Management	31/03/2019
We will ensure any impacts on incident staff resilience from Brexit negotiations are managed effectively through Stop slow reset planning arrangements and continued support for our people. Whilst we may see an impact on training of new staff, we expect the overall numbers to be maintained as incident response is prioritised.	Deputy Director Corporate Incident Management	31/03/2019

9. Our inputs to planning consultations are influential

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Q4 target	Year end target
Green	97.2%	97%	97%

Overall performance for 2018/19 is 97.2% against a target of 97% and therefore green. Area Sustainable Places teams have worked hard to influence the planning application decisions of Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) over which we ultimately have no control. By objecting to inappropriate developments, or by working with developers and LPAs to amend and improve initially unacceptable proposals, we can ensure that the environment is protected and enhanced. By engaging in this way we also help deliver our corporate objective of protecting the environment and promoting sustainable growth.

% decision notices where Local Planning Authorities have accepted our representations

Quarter	Total
2016/17	97.4%
2017/18	96.7%
Q1 2018/19	97.2%
Q2 2018/19	97.8%
Q3 2018/19	97.2%
Q4 2018/19	97.2%

10. We manage our money effectively to deliver our outcomes

Q4 Status	Q4 actual (£m)	Q4 target (£m)	Year end target
Green	£1,227 m	£1,227 m	100%

The measure is used to report on effective management of our money to achieve our outcomes, and is based on the percentage of our full year budget that we have invested. The Environment Agency has a major capital and revenue programme of investment projects and conducts a very detailed planning process in order to ensure appropriate prioritisation of these investments. We are subject to a series of strong financial and governance controls that both protect this investment and provide a logistical challenge in delivering the programme of expenditure. This is considered an appropriate measure, with expenditure being a proxy for delivery of environmental outcomes and this measure is therefore inextricably linked to most of the other scorecard measures.

The Environment Agency has invested just over £1.2bn on the environment in 2018/19, with expenditure on both our grant-in-aid and charge funded activities very closely aligned to our funding. During the final quarter of the year, the Agency have been able to take action on remaining over programming and funding pressures and opportunities, assisted by regular reviews of the forecast position. Close working with programme, budget and project managers on risks and issues identified in these reviews has resulted in the successful investment of all of our full year budget on achieving environmental outcomes.

Cumulative expenditure against YTD budget (%)

Quarter	Total
Q3 17/18	93%
Q4 17/18	100%
Q1 18/19	97%
Q2 18/19	99%
Q3 18/19	99%
Q4 18/19	100%

Cumulative expenditure against YTD budget (£m)

Quarter	Planned profiled cumulative expenditure (£m)	Actual cumulative expenditure (£m)
Q2 17/18	£566	£510
Q3 17/18	£854	£795
Q4 17/18	£1,173	£1,170
Q1 18/19	£272	£264
Q2 18/19	£566	£558
Q3 18/19	£865	£857
Q4 18/19	£1,227	£1,227

Actions

Action(s)	Owner(s)	Deadline(s)
Annual Report and Accounts for 2018/19 to be prepared for audit by NAO, sign off by Directors and laying before Parliament.	Director of Finance	Early in Q2

11. We reduce our carbon footprint

Quarter 4 year to date carbon dioxide emissions (tonnes)

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Ceiling target	Year end target
Green	30,930	32,000	32,000

11.2 Quarter 4 year to date carbon dioxide emissions by type (tonnes)

Type	Status	Actual	Target
Total	Green	30,930	32,000
Operational fuel	Green	3,393	3,615
Travel	Green	9,010	9,270
Buildings (inc labs)	Green	5,183	6,515
Pumping	Green	13,343	12,600

We have surpassed our 2020 target one year early with a 48% reduction in carbon compared to our baseline year. Carbon has reduced by 1,520 tonnes compared to 2017/18. More renewables and less coal on the electricity grid means that the carbon we produced this year is 4,000 tonnes lower than it would have been last year.

As well as benefitting from the “greening of the grid” direct action has also improved our performance. The closure of the National Laboratory Services Nottingham site has reduced carbon by 250 tonnes, with efficiencies gained from workload moving to our other laboratories. Nine energy efficiency projects were delivered to improve our buildings carbon performance this year. These projects ranged from solar photo voltaic and lighting retrofit projects to mechanical blower replacements and building management systems. This will save 180 tonnes and approximately £70k per year from next year onwards. These projects were delivered though £800K of Energy Performance Contracts, at zero cost to Environment Agency.

Transport carbon has reduced by 750 tonnes compared to last year. A 3.3 million mile reduction in rail travel compared to last year has played a large part. 2.3 million miles is accounted for by EA staff moving to Defra, with the remaining one million reduction linked to our financial drive to save 20% on travel and subsistence. It should be noted that our vehicle travel increased by 219,000 miles, possibly as a result of a modal shift from trains. With a switch from diesel to petrol vehicles the potential for an increase in CO2 was significant. However, some of this impact was offset by the significant increase in Ultra Low Emission Vehicles on our fleet, now at 10%. The use of video conferencing (VC) and WebEx is supporting this reduction in the need to travel, with 44,000 more hours of WebEx and VC usage compared to 2017/18.

Total carbon for pumping has reduced by 317 tonnes compared to last year, despite a large increase in pumping for the Ely-Ouse water transfer scheme compared to 2017/18 that peaked in January 2019. Carbon for this scheme has increased by nearly 1,700 tonnes compared to 2017/18.

Tonnes of carbon dioxide produced

2020 target is 30,876 tonnes

Quarter	Total
2014/15	35,635
2015/16	38,460
2016/17	34,470
2017/18	32,450
Q1 18/19	5,333
Q2 18/19	13,333
Q3 18/19	21,333
Q4 18/19	32,000

Actions

Action(s)	Owner(s)	Deadline(s)
Managers to continue their focus on Travel and Subsistence and the application of the travel hierarchy to support continued reduction in travel emissions.	Executive Directors, Directors and Deputy Directors	Ongoing
Continue rollout of additional charge points to support increasing volume of electric and plug in hybrid vehicles in our fleet.	Deputy Director of Fleet	Ongoing
Utilise software that monitors our vehicle charging to understand the utilisation of our charge points and to support improved understanding of the performance of our fleet.	Deputy Director of Fleet	01/07/19

12. We have a diverse workforce

The proportion of our staff who are from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background (BAME %)

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Target	Year end target
Red	4.1%	14%	14%

There were 12 new BAME recruits this quarter out of a total of 212 new starters, which represents 5.7% of all external recruits, slightly below the mean value of 5.8% for the whole period beginning quarter one 2016/17. This, along with the recent declarations campaign, contributed to a net increase in headcount from 412 in quarter three 2018/19 to 431, increasing the proportion of BAME employees in the Environment Agency to 4.1%; the 2016/20 target remains however at 14%.

A suite of initiatives are being used to move us towards our aspirations for the short and long term. These include promoting more community / university focused outreach work, unconscious bias training for recruiting managers, development programmes and mentoring for BAME staff, reviews of exit interviews, an EDT ‘Race Action Plan’, a refreshed resourcing strategy with all vacancies now placed on the VERCIDA online portal, blind sifting of CVs in recruitment, the “increase the pace on race” events, a more engaged BAME network and more active communication on our ethnic diversity.

BAME staff as % of all staff

2020 target = 14%

Quarter	Total
Q1 2016/17	3.6%
Q2 2016/17	3.7%
Q3 2016/17	3.7%
Q4 2016/17	3.8%
Q1 2017/18	4.0%
Q2 2017/18	4.0%
Q3 2017/18	3.8%
Q4 2017/18	3.8%
Q1 2018/19	3.9%
Q2 2018/19	4.0%
Q3 2018/19	4.0%
Q4 2018/19	4.1%

The proportion of our executive managers who are female %

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Target	Year end target
Red	35%	50%	50%

The percentage of female Executive Managers (EMs) is 34.9% (29), which is slightly higher than the previous quarter three 2018/19 (34.5%), the headcount remaining at 29. This compares to a target of 50%. The equivalent figure for the UK Civil Service is 44.2%, which has increased from 38.7% in 2016. The percentage of female Grade 7 employees has increased slightly to 34% (155), compared with a target of 50%; the latest equivalent figure for the Civil service is 44% (Civil Service Grade 6).

Proportion of Executive Managers (EMs) who are female

2020 target = 50%

Quarter	Total
Q2 2016/17	36%
Q3 2016/17	34%
Q4 2016/17	37%
Q1 2017/18	38%
Q2 2017/18	37%
Q3 2017/18	35%
Q4 2017/18	34%
Q1 2018/19	34%
Q2 2018/19	34%
Q3 2018/19	34%
Q4 2018/19	35%

Actions

Action(s)	Owner(s)	Deadline(s)
Unconscious bias training for interview	Exec. Director FCRM	Ongoing
Development programmes and coaching for BAME staff	Legal Services	Ongoing
Development programmes and coaching for female staff	Legal Services	Ongoing
Active support for Brunel and associated engagement initiatives	All Executive Directors	Ongoing

13. We have the lowest possible lost time incident (LTI) frequency rate

Q4 Status	Q4 actual	Ceiling rate	Year end target
Red	0.13	0.11	Amber	0.11

Lost Time Incident Frequency Rate (LTIFR) is a universally accepted lagging indicator of health and safety performance. We adopt a conservative definition of lost time injury so that we capture work related injuries resulting in a day or more lost time. By using such a conservative definition, plus a very low ceiling of 0.11 injuries per 100,000 hours worked, this creates a very challenging aspiration for our overall Health Safety and Wellbeing (HSW) performance. The fact that we are usually close to this ceiling indicates that all the steps we have been undertaking to manage and further improve our HSW are delivering results in terms of reduced numbers of injuries to our people. That has certainly been borne out in quarter four, as our rate remains at 0.13, a significant improvement on the previous year. These HSW improvements most recently include in areas of our work such as Field Operations (refining the training, planning and managing of construction work); lone working; manual handling training; and emphasis on active monitoring, amongst many other things. We also continue to improve our processes for learning from LTIs and Safety Critical Incidents (SCIs), including a recent training programme for lead reviewers.

Lost time incident frequency rate

12 month rolling average

Quarter	Number
April 2018	0.16
May 2018	0.17
June 2018	0.17
July 2018	0.18
August 2018	0.17
September 2018	0.16
October 2018	0.16
November 2018	0.13
December 2018	0.13
January 2019	0.14
February 2019	0.13
March 2019	0.13

Number of LTIs

Quarter	Number
Q4 2015/16	12
Q1 2016/17	4
Q2 2016/17	6
Q3 2016/17	5
Q4 2016/17	4
Q1 2017/18	7
Q2 2017/18	6
Q3 2017/18	13
Q4 2017/18	6
Q1 2018/19	6
Q2 2018/19	5
Q3 2018/19	6
Q4 2018/19	6

Actions

Action(s)	Owner(s)	Deadline(s)
Implement the Health, Safety and Wellbeing plan for 2018/19	Executive Director of Operations	Q4 18/19