Corporate report

Environment Agency corporate scorecard 2024 to 2025 - quarter one

Published 24 October 2024

Applies to England

The corporate scorecard 2024 to 2025 quarter 1 (Q1) starts 1 April 2024 and ends 30 June 2024. The year end is 31 March 2025.

1. Number of properties better protected from flooding

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	91,433	90,272	113,272	Green

Commentary

During quarter one of 2024 to 2025, there were 3,161 properties better protected from flooding and coastal erosion by 6 schemes including:

• Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point Beach Management (Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire area): 2,904 properties
• Dagenham Horseshoe flap valves capital maintenance (Hertfordshire and North London area): 188 properties
• Long Bennington Surface Water Scheme (Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire area): 56 properties

This takes the cumulative total since April 2021 to 91,433 properties. We are currently forecasting we will achieve the cumulative target of 113,272 by end of March 2025.

Properties protected

2024 to 2025 programme cumulative target = 113,272

Number of properties protected each quarter

Quarter	Total
Q1 2023 to 2024	61,228
Q2 2023 to 2024	67,734
Q3 2023 to 2024	71,563
Q4 2023 to 2024	88,272
Q1 2024 to 2025	91,433

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
We will ensure projects receive approval for full business case to enable them to begin construction as planned.	project executives and managers	31/03/2027

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

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Red	92.2%	94.5%	94.5%	Red

Commentary

Environment Agency owned and maintained high consequence asset condition for quarter one is 92.2% at target condition. This is a reduction (of 0.4%) from 92.6% at the end of quarter 4.

Asset condition continues to decline at a current rate of 0.07% per month (0.84% per year) due to funding challenges for asset maintenance. This is compounded by the effects of successive storms over winter 2023 to 2024, which damaged more than 1,500 assets. The rate of fall has reduced as repairs begin to take effect.

We received no additional recovery funding from the spring budget and therefore have over programmed by £36 million capital funding to repair the highest priority assets. In addition, we have contingency and winter readiness plans to reduce risk to significant communities where assets are below required condition in the short term. We are using existing CDEL/RDEL funding concentrating on repairs of the most critical assets and aim to stabilise asset condition as far as possible.

We are continuing to prioritise the need for contingency and mitigation plans where an asset defect will affect its standard of service or resilience. This will form an important part of our winter readiness and resilience briefing and is aligned with a ‘must do’ categorisation in team type plans. The asset management portfolio and technical authority will continue to work with area operations to prioritise contingency and mitigation plans. This will maximise available resources to manage our highest risks for this winter period.

Where assets are below their required condition this identifies that work is required. This does not mean in every case, that assets have structurally failed or that performance in a flood is compromised. However, with more of our assets falling below their target condition than prior to the storms, there is an increased risk of asset failure and flood risk. This will endure throughout 2024 to 2025 and possibly beyond.

Percentage of our flood and coastal risk management assets at or above the target condition

Quarter	% Actual (rounded)	% Target
Q1 2023 to 2024	93.8%	94.5%
Q2 2023 to 2024	93.5%	94.5%
Q3 2023 to 2024	93.3%	94.5%
Q4 2023 to 2024	92.6%	94.5%
Q1 2024 to 2025	92.2%	94.5%

Number of high consequence assets passing

At or above required target condition (Environment Agency)	Below required target condition (Environment Agency)
35,403	2,994

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Repairing and maintaining flood defence assets remains a corporate priority.	Deputy Director Engineering and Technical Assurance	31/03/2025
Ensuring mitigation measures are in place for below required condition assets to manage risk pending repairs.	Deputy Director, Local Operations	31/03/2025
Reducing the backlog of asset repair assessments.	Deputy Director, Local Operations	31/03/2025

3. Innovation actions delivered in flood and coastal resilience to adapt to a changing climate

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	88%	80%	80%	Green

Commentary

This new measure tracks progress of adaptation and resilience actions through the £200 million flood and coastal innovation programmes.

The Programmes are overall on track.

As agreed, the progress figures are based on project performance as of quarter 4 2023 to 2024. Progress assessments are based on detailed one to one project feedback and quarterly updates from all projects:

• 2 of the projects are off track because of underspends in 2023 to 2024 (Devon and Southend)
• 2 projects are self-reported off track issues (Bristol and Gateshead) out of a total of 34 projects
• Gateshead expected to be on track for next quarter reporting

Percentage of actions completed or on track

Quarter	% Actual	% Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	88%	80%

4. Resilience in our capacity to respond to incidents

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	Reported at Q2	Reported at Q2	90%	Amber

Commentary

This measure demonstrates the Environment Agency’s resilience in its capability to respond to flooding and other environmental incidents with sufficient resources in a timely and effective way. Each day, if we are in incident mode, response cells around the country indicate their resilience based on availability of response staff and equipment. A green response denotes a specific cell has the staff and resources available and doesn’t compromise the health, safety and wellbeing of those involved. An example would be, staff are able to get enough rest between overnight shifts. Amber indicates partial resilience, with critical roles covered. Red indicates the cell is not able to function to the standards required to provide an effective response to the incident.

This indicator is new and was introduced in early June, so we have only been gathering data for one month for quarter one.

For quarter one 2024 to 2025, there were only 131 instances of individual cells being scaled up across the Environment Agency. This is significantly lower than average for a typical month. For context, for a significant incident involving 4 areas for 2 weeks (Monday to Sunday) it would potentially mean 364 area and national cells being activated. This low activation number is due to a low number of incidents, with short durations and low effects. This means a full cell scale up for extended periods was not needed. Due to this, the status is reported as green, meaning that we were able to scale up all identified cells required.

In future quarters we expect this indicator to be amber. This indicates a reduction in reported resilience, particularly throughout the winter and when responding to larger, more frequent and longer duration incidents.

5. Air quality is improving

5.1 A reduction in priority air pollutants: (Sulphur oxides, SOx; nitrogen oxides, NOx; fine particulate matter, PM2.5 and non-methane volatile organic compounds, NMVOCs)

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Reported at Q4	Reported at Q4	Reported at Q4	4 out of 4 pollutants showing a reduction	Amber

Commentary

The air quality measure assesses the effect of the Environment Agency’s permit review activity on the emission of atmospheric pollutants.

For 2024 to 2025, this measure reports emissions of 4 key pollutants:

• sulphur oxides (Sox)
• nitrogen oxides (NOx)
• fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
• non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs)

From 6 key industry sectors:

• refineries
• large volume organic chemicals (LVOCs)
• metals (including ferrous, non-ferrous and surface treatment)
• large combustion plant (LCP)

and, for the first time in 2024 to 2025:

• energy from waste (EfW)
• food, drink and milk (FDM)

The 6 sectors have recently undergone permit reviews and we therefore predict improvements in emissions. EfW and FDM sectors concluded their permit reviews in 2024 to 2025 and are newly added. We plan to add more sectors to this corporate scorecard measure, as additional permit reviews are completed.

A fifth key pollutant, ammonia, is not included in the corporate scorecard measure as emissions of ammonia from the selected sectors are relatively small.

The permit reviews, conducted over a 4 or 5 year cycle:

• introduce tighter and more innovative emission control measures on operators - resulting in lower atmospheric emissions

Effective and timely reviews will lead to lower emissions for individual sectors over time. In addition, our audits and site visits ensure that operators are complying with permit conditions. Our advice and guidance to sectors and operators will support the downward trend in emissions and are reflected in the measure.

Data for this measure is reported yearly, based on annual returns from the industries being monitored. Changes in emissions tend to be longer term responses to site activities. Hence the quarter one emission review is qualitative only, based on our staff’s knowledge of industry activities within individual sectors. At the end of quarter one, no major trends or changes in the sectors covered by the measure since April 2024 have been reported.

The air quality measure has been green for the last 3 years, showing a continued decrease in pollutant emissions, except for 2023, when PM2.5 showed an increase. This is due to incomplete PM2.5 data returns in 2022, which resulted in an unexpected reported reduction in emissions for that year. The reduction was not matched in 2023, although a decrease from 2021 was still noted. We expect emission trends of all pollutants to continue downwards.

Based on last year’s performance, our current year end forecast for 2024 to 2025 is amber. However, the following activities, planned for quarter 2 to quarter 4, will help to provide a green measure for the full year:

• the review of Environment Agency pollution inventory data for 2023 to 2024 to identify greatest emitters for each of the key industry sectors and review compliance of individual operators
• prioritise air quality improvements for individual sectors and review ongoing activities in each of the sectors - to determine expected trends for 2024 to 2025 and to separate regulatory vs economic trends

Review related measures, including:

• R04 - we assess permitted sites to ensure that they are compliant
• R13 - % of our permitted sites with A-C ranking
• R22 - we demonstrate our advancement towards completing statutory permit reviews (applications processed as a % of total permits being reviewed)

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Review of Pollution Inventory data for 2023 to 2024, to identify greatest emitters for each of the key sectors, and review compliance of individual operators. Calculate emissions of each of the four pollutants for the 2 new sectors (EfW, FDM).	Monitoring & Assessment Project Support Officer	30 September 2024
Discuss CSC measure with Area Environmental Managers at Delivery Group meeting to agree on greater input from area staff on improving measure performance. Discuss with the relevant Environment Agency sector leads, to prioritise air quality improvements for individual sectors.	Monitoring & Assessment Manager	End of quarter 3 2024 to 2025
Review other linked CSC and balanced scorecard measures, e.g. compliance visits, band A-C installations, to link ongoing work with results on this measure.	Monitoring & Assessment Air Quality Senior Advisor/ Monitoring & Assessment Manager	30 September 2024
Calculate contribution expected from EfW and FDM sectors to National Emissions Ceiling Regulation targets.	Monitoring & Assessment Air Quality Senior Advisor	30 September 2024
Review ongoing activities in each of the 6 sectors covered by the CSC measure, to determine expected trends for 2024 to 2025. Review activities for each sector to separate regulatory vs economic trends.	Sector leads	30 September 2024

6. Hectares of habitat created or restored

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Reported at Q2	Reported at Q2	Reported at Q2	1,250	Amber

Commentary

This early in the business year, we have a mixture of projects on target and others dependent on agreements with partners. Hence there is some uncertainty around the final number of hectares.

Currently, area teams are showing confidence in creating or restoring approximately 800 hectares of wildlife rich habitat. Variances are linked to some project uncertainties and increasing project costs from inception, several years ago.

There remain many opportunities to increase numbers across the country:

• Area Environment Programme
• Fisheries, Biodiversity and Geomorphology
• Flood and Coastal Risk management teams

are working closely to maximise opportunities from the projects they manage. This includes blue carbon projects like:

• Restoring Meadow, Marsh and Reef (ReMeMaRe)
• the £25 million Natural Flood Management Scheme
• Habitat Compensation & Restoration
• Environment Programme and Fisheries Improvement Programme (FIP)

A large array of strong external partnerships, also offer opportunities for creation, for example in peat or salt marsh restoration. The variety of opportunities and close working between teams, places our confidence of an amber forecast at year end.

Hectares of priority habitat created or restored

Year	Hectares created	Target
2022 to 2023	823	660
2023 to 2024	1,912	1,350

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Support and guidance from E&B to area teams, around promoting internally and externally our success, linked to the Nature Programme.	National Biodiversity Senior Advisor	31/03/2025
Additional guidance to Environment Programme managers on recording achievements in the Conservation Projects database in Quarter 2.	National Biodiversity Senior Advisor	31/09/2024

7. We protect people and the environment through effective regulation - permit compliance

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Reported at Q4	Reported at Q4	Reported at Q4	97%	Green

Commentary

We are dedicated to being a trusted and respected regulator. Measuring permit compliance with environmental permits provides an indication of our effectiveness as a regulator. It shows how well the environment and our communities are protected from pollution caused by regulated sites. A site is considered compliant if assessed within the top 3 compliance bands (A-C) in line with published Environment Agency guidance on assessing and scoring permit compliance.

This measure is reported annually, the data for quarter one 2024 to 2025 indicates that our performance is on track to meet our target of 97%. These sites include a range of sectors such as:

• chemicals
• combustion
• metals
• biowaste
• intensive farming
• incineration

When operators are not compliant, we use our regulatory tools and powers to bring them back into compliance for the longer term.

We ensure our regulatory compliance activities are carried out in line with risk and funding. We have tools and guidance in place to enable officers to make decisions on the most suitable compliance activities on a site by site basis. We make full use of our resources and legal powers to deal with the issues citizens care about, such as:

• stopping waste crime
• water pollution
• COMAH

We work in an open and transparent way with those we regulate so they understand what’s expected of them. We help them embrace the circular economy and implement innovative technologies. For example, transitioning to decarbonisation, where our emerging regulatory role will be significant in enabling this, whilst maintaining environmental protection.

Permits are reviewed according to statutory guidelines to ensure they are up to date with the latest legislation and standards. Our regulation ensures businesses take responsibility for their effect on the environment and communities.

We continue to invest in digital systems and technology, so our staff have the tools they need, so;

• it’s easier for businesses to deal with us
• for the public to find out about their environment

Percentage of compliant regulated sites

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q4 2022 to 2023	97.6%	97%
Q4 2023 to 2024	97%	97%

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
We will onboard new external training providers to enable an improved training offer for our regulatory officers, provided in a more efficient way.	Deputy Director, Regulatory Resilience	31/03/2025
We will continue to establish the new Chief Regulator as a head of profession for regulation, supported by a new Chief Regulator’s group.	Deputy Director, Regulatory Resilience	31/03/2025

8. Reduce incidents from sites we regulate

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	135	150	<150	Green

Commentary

The key performance indicator (KPI) for this measure sets a ceiling target for incidents from permitted sites and activities. It concentrates on activities we regulate directly through permit and regulatory compliance. The ceiling target is based on average serious incident numbers from 2018 to 2022 and has been set as the baseline. Incident numbers from unpermitted sources or unknown origin is also monitored, to provide the total number of serious incidents recorded over the previous 12 months.

The number of serious environmental incidents from permitted sites and activities decreased this quarter. A wet winter led to an increase in the number of odour complaints at landfill and waste deposit for recovery sites. We responded by managing odour risks effectively with proactive regulation. The number of serious pollution incidents from water companies remains high. Action from our regulatory interventions takes time, reductions in incident numbers may not be seen immediately

Metals recycling

Incident numbers have reduced this quarter:

• 1 incident was a fire
• 1a surface water pollution
• other incidents were noise from 2 sites in 2 areas
• 1 site is now closed

Noise is inherent to metal recycling activities. Development around existing sites and sensitisation at receptors often exacerbates the issue, which is what we have seen at the sites where most incidents were recorded. We continue to work with these operators to secure improvements to operating techniques and management systems, also considering further enforcement action where improvements are not forthcoming.

Water companies

The number of serious pollution incidents remains high mainly due to the performance of 3 companies:

• Anglian Water
• Southern Water
• Thames Water

This performance means the sector can’t meet the requirements we set out in the water industry strategic environmental requirements (WISER) guidance. It is designed to help water companies understand their environmental obligations and the regulators’ expectations of them. Our increased compliance work and use of improved digital and data tools improves our understanding of risk and inevitably leads to further incidents being recorded.

We are recruiting and training more regulatory officers and undertaking audit work to enable an improved proactive approach to water company regulation. This together with challenging water companies to go further with their own pollution incident reduction plans should see incidents reduce over time

Biowaste treatment

Two sites are causing the majority of incidents for this sector. We are carrying out compliance assessment activities at these sites including odour assessments and feeding back findings to the operator for them to take action.

There is a potential risk due to wet weather and tank stability, trade body operators have been alerted and the need to check tank integrity. We have revised permits where needed and are sharing lessons with trade bodies.

Landfill and deposit for recovery (DfR)

Odour is the primary reason for serious incidents in the sector. Historically, extended periods of wet weather have led to increased odour issues at landfill sites due to an increase in gas and leachate generation. The rolling total of serious incidents has increased from 32 to 35 since the last quarter. All but one were category 2 incidents. This is reflective of an increase in odour issues at sites over the very wet winter months. Of those incidents, 21 were as a result of repeat issues at just 4 sites. The remainder being largely one-off incidents, relating to:

• odour
• fire
• flies
• leachate loss

The sector has prioritised improving operations through:

• proactive regulation
• managing gas
• challenging misdescription of waste
• ensuring sites only accept the right waste

This will help reduce further the number of incidents relating to odour.

Agriculture

There were no incidents from permitted agriculture sources.

Non Hazardous Waste

There were no category 1 incidents in the sector. There were 21 incidents resulting from 9 sites with the majority relating to odour, but others relating to dust, noise and smoke. A glass recycling site was responsible for 7 of the odour related incidents. We have instigated a review of glass recycling permits to ensure they provide an appropriate level of environmental protection.

Food and Drink

There were 3 incidents from 2 separate food and drink sites in the last 12 months. These sites have longstanding issues and our regulation has worked on resolving reoccurring issues. We are seeing significant reductions in complaints from these sites because of improvements.

Other permitted

Includes all Environment Agency permitted sites not specifically highlighted. Each sector individually has caused low incident numbers in recent years. The incidents from other regulated premises in the last 12 months include noise from a cement manufacturer and chemical releases from a chromium products company. An incident from the construction sector and at an electroplating company and more.

A major equipment failure at Essar Oil (UK) Limited at Stanlow oil refinery, led to fuel loss to the environment causing a category 2 incident. The incident is under investigation by the Environment Agency, working with the Health and Safety Executive.

This KPI also tracks the incident numbers from unpermitted sources or where the source is unknown, to obtain a total number of serious incidents. The total number of serious incidents information is tracked in the report ‘review of activities regulated by the Environment Agency’.

Unpermitted incidents significantly outnumber those from a permitted source. In the 12 months to end June 2024 there were 353 (72%) incidents from an unpermitted or unknown source.

Incidents from unpermitted sources affect the water environment significantly more than other media. The sources with the highest numbers of incidents are:

• agriculture
• illegal waste management activities
• water companies

Other unpermitted sources of incidents include:

• service sector (which includes construction and demolition, catering and accommodation and others)
• domestic and residential
• natural sources - for example due to extreme weather or algal growth

Most incidents from non-permitted agriculture this quarter are from dairy and beef farms and relate to the storage of slurry and silage liquors, or slurry spreading. Many of the spreading incidents were run off from spreading on waterlogged or unsuitable land. Many incidents were in the Southwest which follows the normal trends due to the heavier rainfall, especially this quarter after a wet winter. However, the number of incidents are similar to quarter one data in previous years.

We have increased our inspection regime with 1,081 inspections on 1,040 farms completed between April and June 2024 (quarter one). Long term, we expect to see increased compliance and investment in infrastructure. A slurry Infrastructure grant has also been offered to help replace, build additional or expand existing slurry stores to provide 6 months storage.

Number of incidents against target

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2023 to 2024	133	150
Q2 2023 to 2024	127	150
Q3 2023 to 2024	130	150
Q4 2023 to 2024	142	150
Q1 2024 to 2025	135	150

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
BAT requirements are being brought into sector guidance and are being shared with businesses, or will be reviewed starting this year. New BAT standards mean prioritising reviews of industry permits. This will bring higher standards and can work to proactively manage a whole sector to reduce the risk of incidents happening.	Sector leads for metals recycling and food and drink	Depends on sector and when guidance is published, review starting this year
Water Industry Transformation program: we have recruited more staff, provided additional training, improved data analysis, we are using an intelligence led approach and increased asset inspections.	Water company sector lead	Multi-year programme
We required the water industry sector trade body (Water UK) National Pollutions group and all member companies to report on the effectiveness of pollution incident reduction plan (PIRP) interventions during 2023 by March 2024. We are using this information to carry out a review to improve our understanding of actions being taken at sector level. We are using this information for more effective discussions with companies.	Water company sector lead	Ongoing
Complete actions from the environment incident management review which aims to reduce incidents across sectors.	Incident Management and Resilience (IM&R)/E&B Business Board	Multi-year programme
Landfill and DfR teams are working with the sector group prioritising proactive landfill regulation. This is to ensure sites operate in accordance with permit conditions and management plans to minimise uncontrolled emissions leading to odour. We have also prioritised ensuring waste is accepted at the right class of landfill or DfR site through targeted waste acceptance/misdescription audits. This is a joint approach with area hazardous waste leads to deal with the illegal disposal and misdescription of waste.	Environment and Business (E&B) Waste and Recovery teams	ongoing programme
Learning from the oil refinery incident and its response will be shared with the sector when available. We are developing a control strategy for refineries to improve our regulation of these (to reduce the likelihood of such events and our decision making about events that do happen.	Environment & Business, Energy and COMAH team	Ongoing work
We are developing a guidance library and training to support our officers and give them knowledge and confidence to do environment incident risk reduction work.	E&B, Environment Incident team	On going work
We are examining data from incidents originating at unpermitted sites to see if there are trends that can concentrate our work and lessons we can learn from work at permitted sites to reduce incident risk.	E&B, Environment Incident

9. Sewage treatment works brought into compliance

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Reported at Q2 and Q4	Reported at Q2	Reported at Q2 and Q4	90%	Amber

Commentary

We do not have reported data for quarter one as this KPI is reported quarter 2 and quarter 4 only. However, we can confirm that measures are being put in place to achieve this KPI.

Our preliminary work has identified a common theme of flow related breaches, which we are working on. We will use intelligence led planning and local knowledge to target significant non-compliant sites from the previous year to complement our targeted inspection programme.

We are also working with the Water Companies so that they take action to return the sites back into compliance. Also, we are applying our enforcement and sanctions policy to this compliance work.

We have invested in significant training for our regulatory officers and increased technical support which will support meeting this KPI.

We welcome the Water (special measures) bill announced in the King’s speech on Wednesday 17 July 2024. It further underpins what we’ve set out in our Water Industry Regulation Transformation programme in improving our capabilities through new regulatory powers and tools. This will enable us to act faster and with more effect. We are now working with Defra to understand what this means for the Environment Agency.

10. Water company compliance inspections

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	761	356	4,000	Green

Commentary

This corporate scorecard measure covers the inspection of:

• water and sewerage companies
• wastewater treatment works
• pumping stations
• storm overflows

The target is 4,000 of these inspections to be carried out in 2024 to 2025. This is around a 3 fold increase on around 1,300 inspections completed last year. The increased ambition has been funded by the uplift in subsistence charges for water company wastewater discharge regulation.

The annual target is profiled with a greater number planned in the second half of the year. It relies on recruitment and training of new regulatory officers in operational area water regulation teams including existing officers in the Land and Water teams. The new officers are being recruited and will be trained and operational in late quarter 3.

Existing teams have done a fantastic job rising to the challenge and are currently over 214% against profile. We expect rates to drop off slightly in quarter 2 with holiday leave. This is the first step in increasing scrutiny on water companies to encourage improvements in their environmental performance and to demonstrate our comprehensive regulation of this sector.

Number of water company inspections completed against target

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	761	356

11. Local authority planning applications influenced

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Amber	96.4%	97%	97%	Green

Commentary

Performance in quarter one was 96.4%, against a target of 97% and therefore amber. In this quarter there were 33 decisions recorded that weren’t in line with our advice:

• 23 where we had raised objection
• 10 where a condition we had requested wasn’t included in the final decision

Of the objections raised, 5 were made due to unacceptable risk to groundwater and water quality.

The remaining objections were made on flood risk grounds:

• 12 were made on the basis of no, or inadequate flood risk assessments
• 2 were made due to the incompatible with the flood zone they were sited in
• 2 related to developments that would lead to an unacceptable risk to life and/or property
• 2 applications were objected to because the proposed development that would prevent adequate access to maintain or improve Environment Agency assets

The conditions that weren’t included in the final decision related to:

• land contamination/groundwater protection
• implementation of mitigation measures identified in flood risk assessments
• pollution control and biodiversity issues

Most planning decisions are made in line with our advice. Where we do have to raise objection, we work hard with developers and the local planning authorities to try and resolve issues. From recorded decisions in quarter one there were 141 planning applications where we had initially raised objections, but by engaging with developers we managed to resolve our concerns. This facilitated the creation of 11,110 new residential units should all these planning permissions be implemented. These residential developments, if built, would help contribute over £1.8 billion to UK economic output. We are one of several consultees who provide planning advice. Nevertheless it appears to represent an excellent return on the Environment Agency’s £2.4 million quarterly spend on this vital work.

Percentage of decision notices where local planning authorities have accepted our representations

Quarter	Total
Q1 2023 to 2024	97%
Q2 2023 to 2024	97%
Q3 2023 to 2024	97%
Q4 2023 to 2024	97.4%
Q1 2024 to 2025	96.4%

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
We will explore further why these decisions went against our advice. There are currently no discernible trends or factors causing us concern. Initial investigations suggest there may be some training requirements for some less experienced staff to ensure the conditions we are requesting are appropriate.	Manager, Sustainable Places Delivery	30/09/2024

12. Percentage of development consent orders (DCOs) for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) that we successfully influence

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	100%	97%	97%	Green

Commentary

This is a new measure for 2024 to 2025 and demonstrates our effective influencing of the development consent orders (DCOs) for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs). Specifically, it measures our effectiveness in securing the requirements in the final DCO decision. This will be what the Environment Agency considers necessary to ensure that the NSIP development doesn’t detrimentally affect the environment. Work influencing NSIPs is undertaken in operations by area teams and the National Infrastructure team (NIT). The NIT was set up in April 2023 specifically to support the government’s ambitions to speed up the provision of critical national infrastructure and is leading on work relating to all new NSIPs since April 2023.

In quarter one there were 3 DCOs decisions made by Secretaries of State. Within those DCOs we requested 6 specific requirements to ensure the developments didn’t adversely affect the environment. We were successful in ensuring that all the requirements we asked for were included in the final decisions.

Percentage of DCOs

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	100%	97%

13. Industry compliance reduces carbon emissions

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	95%	80%	80%	Green

Commentary

The Environment Agency is regulator and administrator for the key UK regulatory instruments to incentivise reductions of carbon emissions, increase energy efficiency from business and industry. Compliance with the regulatory requirements is the main lead indicator of performance from these schemes to support the ambition of net zero.

The measure shows our performance on critical net zero regimes that we manage. Measuring compliance with the key statutory deadlines provides an indication of our effectiveness as a regulator. There are a range of compliance deadlines throughout the year. For quarter one this includes the requirement for 476 installation and 404 aircraft operators regulated under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to surrender carbon allowances. This is equivalent to their annual reported emissions by 30 April 2024. As shown in the data, 95% of operators were compliant.

To enable this compliance, we have provided regular engagement, advice and guidance and access to digital reporting systems. This is so it’s easier for businesses to deal with us and meet their obligations.

Percentage of compliant returns

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	95%	80%

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
We will continue with our proactive engagement activities to achieve this measure. This involves engaging with the regulated community throughout the year, providing advice and guidance, managing reporting systems and compliance accounts to enable organisations to comply.	Manager, Operations, Regulation, Monitoring and Customer (RMC)	31/03/2025
During quarter 2 we will continue to concentrate on engagement and support for those organisations regulated by the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) required to submit a notification of compliance during quarter 2. The 4 yearly ESOS notification of compliance requires over 9,000 companies to declare that they have completed an accredited energy audit. Based on the first 2 phases, we expect to achieve 80% compliance by the deadline, rising to 100% during the following 3 quarters created by compliance and enforcement action.	Manager, Operations, Regulation, Monitoring and Customer (RMC)	31/03/2025

14. Number of farm inspections

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	1,028	977	4,000	Green

Commentary

We continue to work on achieving the target of 4,000 agricultural inspections per annum and are likely to be green on this target by the end of the year.

Some areas have been affected by loss of staff but continue to meet targets despite this, due to retaining enough skilled staff in post. As the number of farm inspection increase, we also expect to see an increase in enforcement action. To mitigate the effect on carrying out inspections, a new enforcement and regulation team has been established to support agriculture officers.

At the end of quarter one:

• 10 areas are forecasting green
• 4 forecasting amber
• none are forecasting red
• 9 areas have overachieved on their inspections during this quarter

This is partly due to anticipating an increase in the amount of enforcement work that will be generated throughout the year. This is a great success indicating the benefits of having trained officers concentrating on agriculture. An over achievement at this stage provides a buffer for staff later in the year as they pick up enforcement work and allow for busier times during autumn harvest.

During quarter one we have issued 2,097 improvement actions to farmers and started enforcement proceedings against 145 farmers. Of these actions 335 have been confirmed as complete. We continue to prioritise following up overdue actions to ensure farmers take measures necessary to protect the environment.

Number of farm inspections

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	1,028	977

15. We stop illegal waste sites

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	20	17	90	Green

Commentary

Our actions stopped 20 active high risk illegal waste sites during the last quarter. We concentrate on dealing with sites posing the greatest threat, risk and harm to communities and the environment, and are undermining investment by legitimate business.

This measure supports the achievement of government Resource and Waste Strategy and sustainable development goals of:

• maximise our resources
• minimise our waste

This contributes to the government goal to eliminate waste crime and illegal waste sites by 2042. Framework indicators being J5 Prevent harmful chemicals from being recycled, J6 Waste crime.

Through the quarter new sites were identified as operating illegally. The Environment Agency latest waste crime survey (2023) indicated that waste crime is currently under reported. We should remain cautious in interpreting the known sites as the true number is likely to be greater.

Number of high risk illegal waste sites stopped

Quarter	Total	Ceiling target
Q1 2023 to 2024	167	164
Q2 2023 to 2024	167	161
Q3 2023 to 2024	134	154
Q4 2023 to 2024	141	151
Q1 2024 to 2025	20	17

16. Net zero carbon by 2030

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Red	78,658	62,674	<250,697	Red

Commentary

At quarter one 2024 to 2025 the Environment Agency has exceeded its carbon target, at 126% of the quarter one budget. The Construction carbon category is over budget for quarter one. As reported at year end 2023 to 2024, work is taking place to improve the granularity of FCRM data. This is to provide specific insight into areas where performance can be improved. As at quarter one 2024 to 2025 these categories are also over budget:

• cars
• computers
• other direct
• other indirect

This is partially because updates have been made to the way in which the organisation calculates supply chain emissions. In 2023 to 2024, the Environment Agency and Defra Sustainability teams worked with The Carbon Trust, to align our reporting methods and start to reference UK-specific market figures while calculating our supply chain emissions. This update has improved data accuracy and resulted in an uplift in reported emissions. We will re-align our baseline to this updated methodology in the quarter 2 Report.

Construction

Emissions from the Environment Agency’s capital programme are over budget at quarter one 2024 to 2025. Construction emissions are currently tied to spend data, so overprogramming of the capital programme by £165 million has resulted in higher than expected reported emissions. Improving data granularity will resolve this issue and provide insight into the performance of specific projects. Alongside data quality improvements, actions are also being undertaken to improve emissions reduction:

• annual decarbonisation plans up to 2030 for each of our capital programme delivery hubs and their supply chain
• recruitment of carbon expertise across Environment Agency capital programme teams to help and guide projects in maximising their carbon reduction opportunities
• agreed performance targets with our partners that are incentivised within all design and construction contracts
• launched a decarbonisation technology accelerator project to speed up the adoption of low carbon technologies across the capital programme

Cars

Emissions from cars are over budget at quarter one 2024 to 2025. This is primarily a result of an increasing trend in travel. Mileage associated with badged vehicles (including pool cars) increased by 20% vs quarter one 2023 to 2024 and 10% vs quarter 4. Hire car mileage also increased by 17% vs quarter one 2023 to 2024, however there was a reduction of 16% vs quarter 4. The Environment Agency fleet is now 40% electric (55% of lease cars and 16% of commercial vehicles).

Commuting

Commuting emissions are under budget at quarter one 2024 to 2025. The figures used this quarter were obtained from the 2023 to 2024 commuting and homeworking survey which was undertaken in quarter 3 2023 to 2024.

Computers

Emissions from Environment Agency IT are over budget at quarter one 2024 to 2025. DDTS were unable to provide data in quarter 3 and quarter 4 2023 to 2024. Analysis of the quarter one data indicates that year on year, there has been a significant increase in spend (40%) with one IT supplier. A re-baselining exercise is planned for this year, which is expected to improve the accuracy of this dataset.

Pumping

Emissions from pumping (excluding temporary pumping) are 3% lower than quarter one 2023 to 2024 and are within the carbon budget for this category. We are currently exploring how we can correlate pumping emissions with incident response in future reports, to enable a better understanding of performance in this category.

Other direct

This category is over budget at quarter one 2024 to 2025, it includes:

• National Laboratory Service (NLS) operations
• boats
• LIDAR
• aeroplanes
• operational liquid fuel use

This is primarily due to the quantity of operational fuel purchased this quarter. It has more than double the amount purchased in quarter one 2023 to 2024. This financial year reserves are being built up, in advance, for the coming winter.

Other indirect

This category is over budget at quarter one 2024 to 2025, it includes:

• the organisation’s supply chain
• train and air travel
• hotel stays and operational waste

Train travel has increased by 62% vs quarter one 2023 to 2024 and by 30% vs quarter 4. Hotel stays have increased by 11% vs quarter one 2023 to 2024 and by 59% vs quarter 4.

Quarterly Carbon dioxide equivalents emissions

Quarter	Total (tonnes)
Q1 2023 to 2024	100,031
Q2 2023 to 2024	139,658
Q3 2023 to 2024	171,387
Q4 2023 to 2024	269,339
Q1 2024 to 2025	78,658

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Reporting - construction carbon data needs to be based on actual (rather than modelled) data as soon as possible. Net zero roadmap actions need to be completed quarterly.	Director (construction carbon). All action owners (roadmap).	ongoing
Travel - continue to follow the corporate travel hierarchy and use of badged, pool and hire vehicle policy. Line managers to explore anomalies with their direct reports.	executive directors, directors and deputy directors.	ongoing
Services carried out through Defra - we need to ensure that sustainability is integrated into future performance assessment, to enhance emissions reduction.	Environment Agency Sustainability team working with Defra Sustainability team.	ongoing

17. Efficiency savings

Cash releasing grant in-aid

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Reported at Q2 and Q4	Reported at Q2 and Q4	£15 million	<250,697	Reported at Q2 and Q4

Charges

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Reported at Q2 and Q4	Reported at Q2 and Q4	£8 million	<250,697	Reported at Q2 and Q4

Commentary

A Transformation Hub has been created within the Strategy, Transformation and Assurance (STA) directorate to help achieve our efficiency objectives. The Transformation Hub’s vision is to work with the business to:

• maximise the value for money
• achievement of strategic objectives

from our corporate investment in change.

We are establishing a programme and approach that will enable:

• a culture of innovation with associated capabilities, structure, and governance
• cashable yield from innovation and reduced duplication
• smarter working - process improvements and continuous improvements

The programme will achieve this through:

• deregulating and reducing overhead
• considering front line versus back office costs - with a view to supporting more frontline activity
• establishing a more holistic and system-wide approach

Delivery of our efficiency programme (grant in aid):

• grant in aid efficiency savings will be cash-releasing to compensate for reduction in funding allocations
• £15 million efficiency savings objective in 2024 to 2025 reflects outstanding spending review 21 commitments
• for future spending review periods - efficiency targets will relate to any further changes in funding

Delivery of our Efficiency Programme (Charges):

• £8 million efficiency savings in 2024 to 2025 reflects proposals made as part of the Water Quality charges submission
• for future years - a proportion of cash-releasing efficiencies found across charge funded activities will be released and reinvested back into specific activities

We will also continue to optimise revenue generation through:

• cost recovery
• commercial development
• partnership working
• delivery and investment (i.e. green finance and blended funding mechanisms)

18. We have a diverse workforce

The percentage of our staff who are from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Reported at Q2 and Q4	Reported at Q2 and Q4	Reported at Q2 and Q4	7.6%	Reported at Q2 and Q4

black, Asian and minority ethnic background staff as % of all staff

2024 to 2025 target = 7.6%

Quarter	Total
Q4 2022 to 2023	5.3 %
Q2 2023 to 2024	5.7%
Q4 2023 to 2024	6.1 %

The percentage of senior staff who are female

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Reported at Q2 and Q4	Reported at Q2 and Q4	Reported at Q2 and Q4	50%	Reported at Q2 and Q4

Percentage of senior staff who are female

2024 to 2025 target = 50%

Quarter	Total
Q4 2022 to 2023	48%
Q2 2023 to 2024	47.2%
Q4 2023 to 2024	45.7%

19. Minimise time lost to work related injuries

Q1 status	Q1 actual	Q1 target	2024 to 2025 target	Year end forecast
Green	0.10	0.11	<0.11	Green

Commentary

The lost time incident (LTI) frequency rate continues to be within the target range at 0.10 for quarter one. There is a caveat to this data as we are reviewing other absence data sources (SOP) to ensure it is accurate. This means there is a potential risk of changes to previous quarter’s results. We expect to report any changes in the quarter 2 results. In the interim, we continue to monitor and review every lost time injury and to act if we identify lessons for the business, as well as acting swiftly on new incidents to share early lessons with the business to raise awareness.

Lost time incident frequency rate per 100,000 hours

12 month rolling average

Quarter	Number
January 2023	0.10
February 2023	0.10
March 2023	0.10
April 2023	0.09
May 2023	0.10
June 2023	0.09
July 2023	0.10
August 2023	0.10
September 2023	0.11
October 2023	0.10
November 2023	0.10
December 2023	0.10
January 2024	0.09
February 2024	0.10
March 2024	0.10
April 2024	0.10
May 2024	0.10
June 2024	0.10

Number of LTIs

Quarter	Number
Q1 2023 to 2024	3
Q2 2023 to 2024	7
Q3 2023 to 2024	6
Q4 2023 to 2024	8
Q1 2024 to 2025	2