The corporate scorecard 2024 to 2025 quarter 2 (Q2) starts 1 July 2024 and ends 30 September 2024. The year end is 31 March 2025.

1. Number of properties better protected from flooding

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
94,055	92,272	113,272	Green	Green

Commentary

During quarter 2 of 2024 to 2025, there were 2,622 properties better protected from flooding and coastal erosion by 14 schemes including:

• Cockett Wick (East Anglia Area): 1,526 properties
• Sutton Harbour gate (Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Area): 300 properties
• Penketh and Whittle FRM Scheme (Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire Area): 221 properties

This takes the cumulative total since April 2021 to 94,055 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
Q2 2024 to 2025	94,055

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

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
92.1	94.5%	94.5%	Red	Red

Commentary

Environment Agency owned and maintained high consequence asset condition for quarter 2 is 92.1% at target condition. This is a reduction (of 0.1%) from 92.2% at the end of quarter one.

Asset condition continues to fall at a current average rate of 0.07% per month (0.84% per year). This is due to funding challenges for asset maintenance, a growing asset base and assets approaching end of life. This is compounded by the effects of successive storm damage over the winter 2023 to 2024 which saw damages to more than 1,500 assets.

We have contingency and winter readiness plans to reduce risk to key communities where assets are below required condition in the short term. We are developing plans to improve the reliability of our most critical assets based on a recent assessment. We are using existing capital department expenditure (CDEL) and revenue department expenditure (RDEL) funding concentrating on repairs of the most critical assets. We aim to stabilise asset condition so far as possible with these repairs. We have also diverted £36 million CDEL from the capital programme to repair the most important assets damaged last winter.

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. There is an increased risk of asset failure and flood risk, as more of our assets fall below target condition than prior to the storms. 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 2022 to 2023	91.8%	98%
Q2 2022 to 2023	93.9%	98%
Q3 2022 to 2023	94%	98%
Q4 2022 to 2023	94.5%	98%
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%
Q2 2024 to 2025	92.1%	94.5%

Number of high consequence assets passing

At or above required target condition (Environment Agency)	Below required target condition (Environment Agency)
35,880	3,097

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

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
91%	80%	80%	Green	Green

Commentary

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

The programmes are overall on track.

The figures are based on project performance as of quarter one 2024 to 2025. Progress assessments are based on detailed one to one project feedback and quarterly updates from all projects. Three projects are off-track this quarter:

• 2 Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation programme projects are off track: one is due to late claims (Ousewem York) and one is for significant uncertainty about project expenditure (approximately £1.3 million land purchase for Our Future Coast, Wyre)
• 1 Coastal Transition Acceleration programme project is off-track due to headway on their outline business case (Cornwall)

All projects are expected to be on track for next quarter.

Percentage of actions completed or on track

Quarter	% Actual	% Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	88%	80%
Q2 2024 to 2025	91%	80%

4. Resilience in our capacity to respond to incidents

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
Amber	Green	Green	Amber	Amber

Commentary

This measure demonstrates our 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
• an amber indicates partial resilience with critical roles covered
• a red indicates the cell is not able to function to the standards required to provide an effective response to the incident

For quarter 2 2024 to 2025, there were 961 instances of response cells being scaled up across the Environment Agency. This is an increase from quarter one because of the wet weather and subsequent flooding. It is also because we have been able to collect a full quarter’s data for this new measure. The period saw regular, smaller scale incidents that often didn’t require 24/7 shift rostering for extended periods. Our performance is amber, due to the proportion of cells that were amber (18.7%) which operate at a lower level of service. Cells were red (1.4%) where the cell was not able to function effectively. Areas in the Midlands and the South East are showing the lowest resilience this quarter. Multiple operational areas have moved from green to amber or red status since quarter one.

Low resilience reflects the effect of reduced staffing, partly from reducing numbers of trained staff available and partly due to unforeseen circumstances such as sickness. Increased demand for resilient rosters during public and school holidays also has an influence.

We are introducing some measures that will increase resilience such as:

• the ability to better move and share resources around the country
• training up new responders
• working with contractors

We are forecasting a further reduction in resilience over the winter period due to the increased likelihood of larger, more frequent and longer duration incidents. We are therefore forecasting end of year for this indicator to be amber.

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)

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
Data reported at Q4	Reports at Q4	4 out of 4 pollutants showing a reduction	Reports at Q4	Green

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 measure gives an indication of the effectiveness of our regulatory work on air quality, principally the review of permits. This is in line with emerging best available techniques/standards, as well as compliance and enforcement activity and engagement with industry.

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. The shutdown or process changes of some installations, in part driven by our increased regulatory requirements, also contribute to emission reductions.

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 2 emission review is qualitative only, based on our staff’s knowledge of industry activities within individual sectors.

At the end of quarter 2, there were 2 issues highlighted regarding emissions trends:

• a dust release from a site that is now under investigation - although limited in time the release may potentially lead to a small increase of PM2.5 emissions for the quarter - we do not believe this will be significant enough to change the downward trend in PM2.5 emissions for the sector - the source of the dust release had been identified and effectively managed
• the UK’s last coal powered station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in East Midlands finished operations at the end of September 2024 - we expect this to lead to some decreases in SOx emissions for 2024

The air quality measure was green in 2021 and 2022, showing a continued decrease in pollutant emissions. It was amber for 2023, when PM2.5 showed an increase. This was 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. Our current year end forecast for 2024 is therefore green.

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Review of pollution inventory data for 2023 to 2024, to identify greatest emitters for each of the main sectors, review compliance of individual operators and concentrate on compliance reviews for quarter 3 to quarter 4.	Monitoring & Assessment team and Sector Leads	31 December 2024
Discuss CSC measure with the relevant Environment Agency sector leads, to prioritise air quality improvements for individual sectors.	Monitoring & Assessment Manager	31 December 2024
Sector plans to prioritise air quality improvements as one of their objectives for 2024 to 2025 (this is already the case for the metals sector and the chemicals sector). To review ongoing activities in each of the sectors, to determine expected trends for 2024 to 2025 and to separate regulatory vs economic trends.	Sector leads	31 December 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/Future Regs	31 December 2024
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	Complete
Calculate contribution expected from EfW and FDM sectors to National Emissions Ceiling Regulation targets.	Monitoring & Assessment Air Quality Senior Advisor.	Complete

6. Hectares of habitat created or restored delivering environmental net gain

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
270	Reported at Q4	1,250	Green	Amber

Commentary

Five area teams are on track to meet or exceed their targets, but 9 do not expect to meet their ambitious targets. We know that quarter 2 is too early in the cycle of habitat establishment to confidently forecast the outcome, as experience has shown that outcomes peak in quarter 4.

Habitat restoration requires in year planning and preparation to ensure specific environmental conditions are met, for example preventing disturbance to ground nesting birds, securing landowner permissions and protecting species on sites.

Delays this year, due to:

• adverse weather
• late timing of project budgets - particularly the environment programme

has pushed this towards the end part of the year. This increases the risk that we may miss our overall target, so it has an amber forecast. In 2024 to 2025 there’s a relatively low number of flood defence capital schemes projected to conclude this year. This will push habitats created into future years.

Hectares of priority habitat created or restored

Year	Hectares created	Target
2020 to 2021	1,897	1,200
2021 to 2022	1,111	620
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

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

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
Reports at Q4	Reports at Q4	97%	Reports at Q4	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 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 and we are currently forecast to meet our challenging target of 97%. This is based on the recorded performance data as of end of September. 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 support operators who embrace the circular economy and implement innovative technologies, for example, transitioning to decarbonisation, 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
We will develop and pilot new ways of working to target and assure the effectiveness of our regulatory interventions.	Deputy Director, Regulation Operations Portfolio and Deputy Director, Regulatory Resilience	01/10/2025

8. Reduce incidents from sites we regulate

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
159	150	<150	Amber	Amber

Commentary

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 (category 1 and 2) environmental incidents from permitted sites and activities has increased over the last quarter. The year end forecast is therefore now amber. The rise in incidents has largely been driven by extended periods of wet weather causing odour problems at landfill sites. Our increased attention on water industry regulation has caused an increase in reported incidents.

We have seen a slight rise in fire related incidents attributed to lithium-ion batteries. Across all sectors we continue to work with industry to prevent incidents and to capture learning when and where they do occur. We also continue to invest in incident reduction training and updated guidance for our regulatory staff.

We have reviewed quarter one actions against the work we are doing to improve regulatory effectiveness and have developed these accordingly.

Metals recycling

Whilst noise is inherent to metal recycling operations. Development around existing sites can create sensitisation at receptors and exacerbate the issue. We continue to work with the operator to reduce these incidents.

We have seen an increase in fire related incidents attributed to Lithium-ion batteries. In response to this, have undertaken a program of audits at sites handling waste batteries, whilst continuing to raise awareness to reduce risks. We are writing appropriate measures guidance for sites handling waste batteries to ensure these are handled safely to reduce the risks of fire.

We continue to prioritise and review installation permits within the sector to implement Best Available Technique (BAT) standards. To raise operating standards across the sector we implement the requirements of our published appropriate measures guidance for:

• metal shredding
• Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
• fridge treatment

Water companies

The number of serious pollution incidents remains high mainly due to the performance of 4 companies:

• Anglian Water
• Southern Water
• Thames Water
• Yorkshire Water

This performance means the sector can’t meet the requirements we set out in the water industry strategic environmental requirements (WISER) guidance. Our increased compliance work and use of improved digital and data tools advances 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. We forecast upward pressure that may lead to further increases to numbers of serious incidents. We anticipate more incidents soon due to deteriorating company prevention and control and increased rates of reporting by the public. We expect reductions to become possible as PIRPS and other interventions take fuller effect.

Biowaste treatment

Most biowaste treatment permits are complete, with only 20 waste operations pending review. The main challenge now is sludge treatment anaerobic digestion (AD) installations in the water industry. Of 100 sites:

• 33 permits have been issued
• 34 are under review

These permits require infrastructure and emissions control improvements. We’ve successfully defended our secondary containment requirements and are addressing emissions to water and methane emissions to air through appeal.

Landfill and deposit for recovery (DfR)

The rolling total of serious incidents has seen an increase to 51 incidents in the last 12 months. There have been 2 category 1 incidents because of a fire at one site and significant odour from leachate contaminated surface water at another. The remaining 49 incidents were category 2 incidents, all but 2 related to odour. Thirty seven of the odour incidents relate to ongoing issues at 5 sites. The remainder were short lived incidents that were resolved quickly by working with the operator.

Extended periods of wet weather have led to increased odour issues at landfill sites due to an increase in gas and leachate generation.

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. We are consulting with industry on revised guidance for leachate management.

Agriculture

There were no incidents from permitted agriculture sources.

Non Hazardous Waste

Most incidents in this period were:

• 10 odour
• 7 fires

Followed by amenity issues such as:

• dust
• flies
• noise

Amenity effects are one of the main issues for the sector due to waste types and activities. We are investing in training for regulatory staff and are undertaking work to update permits.

Food and drink

Incidents from the food and drink sector sites continue to decrease. There has been a strong emphasis on incident reduction within the sector as part of the compliance and inspection programme.

Other permitted

The very low numbers from other regulated premises includes:

• incidents from land spreading
• private sewage treatment plant failure
• construction
• chemicals
• waste removal to an unpermitted site
• over abstraction at a hydropower installation

All had effects on water, land or both.

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
Q2 2024 to 2025	135	150

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
We will continue to work to update and modernise our permit stock. For example, updating sector permits to align with new BAT (Best Available Technique) standards, legislative updates and learning from incidents.	Regulatory Deputy Directors	Ongoing programme
We will continue to invest in updated regulatory officer training to support our officers and give them knowledge and confidence in permit compliance and environment incident risk reduction. This is happening across all the regimes we regulate.	Regulatory Deputy Directors	Ongoing programme
We will continue to update guidance for business sectors to align with updated standards and sector specific action plans.	Regulatory Deputy Directors	Ongoing
We are improving how we learn from incidents so risk reduction actions can be shared across our teams and with businesses.	Regulatory Deputy Directors	Ongoing
A new Chief Regulator for the Environment Agency, supported by a Chief Regulators group will work to encourage continuous improvement across all our regulatory activity, including incident risk reduction. This will include work to set standards for enabling compliance across all the sectors we regulate and leading a professional and confident regulatory workforce.	Chief Regulators group Deputy Directors	ongoing programme
We continue to work closely with industry to reduce incidents. Specifically on landfill incidents where we have seen increases this quarter. Landfill and deposit for recovery (DfR) teams are working with the sector group to prioritise proactive landfill regulation to ensure sites operate in accordance with permit conditions and management plans. This is to minimise uncontrolled emissions leading to odour. The teams are also prioritising waste acceptance at the right class of landfill or DfR site through targeted waste acceptance/misdescription audits. This is a joint approach with frontline hazardous waste leads to deal with the illegal disposal and misdescription of waste.	Environment & Business, Waste and Recovery teams	Ongoing programme
We are running an agriculture winter readiness regulatory campaign using early engagement through media and direct communication to encourage and advise farmers to get ready for winter. Officers will also be carrying out ‘days of action’ to identify land spreading activity that is taking place at a time when it may cause a pollution.	Environment and Business Agriculture team and area officers	Winter 2024

9. Sewage treatment works brought into compliance

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
77%	45%	90%	Green	Amber

Commentary

We continue to concentrate our regulatory efforts on bringing water company sites that pose the highest risk to the environment into compliance. We have made good headway, with 81 of 105 sites (77%), being brought back into compliance in the first 6 months of this financial year.

In addition to increasing our number of regulatory and enforcement officers, we have invested in:

• significant training for our officers
• increased technical support

and are undertaking assurance around our processes.

Our compliance work with water companies ensures that they:

• take action to return the sites back into compliance
• apply our enforcement and sanctions policy

To meet the year end target of 90% of sites reaching compliance, we will need to influence water companies to undertake significant investment for compliance. The scale of the investment and infrastructure changes required may preclude moving some sites into compliance in this timescale.

We welcome the Water Special Measures Bill announced in the King’s Speech on Wednesday 17 July. It further strengthens 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.

Number of Sewage treatment works

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q2 2024 to 2025	81	105

10. Water company compliance inspections

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
1,932	686	4,000	Green	Green

Commentary

This corporate scorecard measure covers the inspection of:

• water and sewerage companies
• waste water 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 of inspections in the second half of the year. It relies on the recruitment and training of new regulatory officers in our area teams. We are significantly ahead of the quarterly profile as we have prioritised our regulation of water company permitted sites. This is in line with our increased scrutiny of water companies.

We expect to stay on target for the rest of the year as more new regulatory officers are fully trained to carry out this work. This is part of a package of measures to create improvements in water company environmental performance and to demonstrate our comprehensive regulation of this sector.

Water company inspections completed against target

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q2 2024 to 2025	1,932	686

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Continued monthly scrutiny.	Water Industry Sector group	Ongoing

11. Local authority planning applications influenced

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
97.8%	97%	97%	Green	Green

Commentary

The year to date performance at the end of quarter 2 was 97.8%, against a target of 97% and therefore green. In this quarter there were 13 decisions recorded that weren’t in line with our advice:

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

Of the objections raised, 2 were made due to unacceptable risk to groundwater and water quality.

The remaining objections were made on flood risk grounds:

• 4 were made on the basis of no, or inadequate flood risk assessments
• 1 was due to the incompatible with the flood zone it was sited in
• 2 related to developments that would lead to an unacceptable risk to life and/or property

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

• land contamination/groundwater protection
• improvements to mains foul sewerage systems
• pollution control and biodiversity issues

Most planning decisions are made in line with our advice. Where we do have to raise objections, we work hard with developers and the local planning authorities to try and resolve issues.

Of the decisions recorded in quarter 2 there were 120 planning applications with residential components where we’d initially raised objections. By engaging with developers we managed to resolve our concerns. This should help create 5,374 new residential units if all these planning permissions are implemented. These residential developments, if built, would help contribute over £0.9 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%
Q2 2024 to 2025	97.8%

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

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
100%	97%	97%	Green	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. It’s function is to support the government’s ambitions to speed up the provision of critical national infrastructure. It is leading on work relating to all new NSIPs since April 2023.

In quarter 2 there were 5 DCO decisions made by Secretaries of State. Within those DCOs we requested 13 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%
Q2 2024 to 2025	100%	97%

13. Industry compliance reduces carbon emissions

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
74%	80%	80%	Red	Green

Commentary

We are behind target for quarter 2 due to high workloads and delays in the scheme implementation and legislation. We expect to be at green status by quarter 4.

The quarter 2 performance is affected by the compliance deadline for 9,000 qualifying companies to notify us that they have completed an accredited energy efficiency assessment. This is required by phase 3 of the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS). Work continues at pace to encourage compliance and to refine the number of expected compliance returns.

We faced multiple challenges in the build up to the compliance deadline for phase 4. This includes delays to legislation and publication of our ‘how to comply’ guidance to customers.

The amount of time customers could submit their notification of compliance was affected by:

• delays in the implementation of the new IT system
• the compliance deadline being pushed back by 6 months

In this context 74.5% is excellent performance enforcement and compliance activities are underway to continue to improve compliance levels over the coming months. We are confident that we will reach our target for year end. In October, we have received many additional notifications of compliance. Our ongoing enforcement work is being prioritised to bring as many organisations as possible into compliance.

Percentage of compliant returns

Quarter	Actual	Target
Q1 2024 to 2025	95%	80%
Q2 2024 to 2025	74%	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

14. Number of farm inspections

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
2,302	1,984	4,000	Green	Green

Commentary

We continue to work on achieving the target of 4,000 agricultural inspections per annum. We are on track to achieve green status on this target by the end of the year.

The agriculture regulatory taskforce is now in its third year and has a stable skilled workforce which is helping maintain trajectory to achieve the target. Where vacancies occur, we consider backfilling on a case by case basis. This is to ensure resource is targeted in the highest risk areas with the highest risk farms. Although turnover is low, some areas continue to be affected by loss of staff. This may affect some individual area’s ability to meet their target at the end of the year. However, it is not anticipated that this will influence the overall national target.

As the number of farm inspections increases, we also expect to see an increase in enforcement action. To mitigate the effect on carrying out inspections, a new National Enforcement and Regulation team has been established to support agriculture officers.

By quarter 2, we have issued:

• 3,926 improvement actions to farmers
• started enforcement proceedings against 145 farmers

Of these actions, 971 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
Q2 2024 to 2025	2,302	1,984

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Continue to ensure that agriculture farm inspections are prioritised and that any agriculture regulatory iInspection officer vacancies are prioritised for backfill.	Area directors	31/03/2025
Ensure that actions issued to farms during inspections are completed in a timely manner.	Area directors	31/03/2025

15. We stop high risk illegal waste sites

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
44	41	90	Green	Green

Commentary

The Environment Agency stopped 44 high risk illegal waste sites by the end of quarter 2. This is 3 above our target and we remain on course to meet the year end target of 90.

We continue to target the sites posing the greatest threat, risk and harm to communities. We are making full use of our civil powers, such applying restriction notices and orders, to swiftly disrupt and stop illegal activity.

We continue to identify new sites operating illegally. These figures provide only a partial picture and the true number of illegal waste sites is likely to be higher.

Number of high risk illegal waste sites stopped

Quarter	Total	Ceiling target
Q1 2022 to 2023	188	195
Q2 2022 to 2023	180	190
Q3 2022 to 2023	190	185
Q4 2022 to 2023	175	180
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
Q2 2024 to 2025	44	41

16. Net zero carbon by 2030

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
126,176	125,349	<250,697	Amber	Red

Commentary

At quarter 2 2024 to 2025, the Environment Agency is slightly over its carbon target, at 101% of the quarter 2 year to date budget. Nearly a third of our net zero roadmap actions are behind schedule or remain unreported, although the trend here is an improving one. Overall reported emissions have reduced by 15% compared to quarter 2 2023 to 2024. This is as a result of the change in reported emissions from construction, which remains the biggest contributor at over 65% of total emissions.

Construction

Emissions from the Environment Agency’s capital programme are under budget (93%) at quarter 2 and have emitted 15% less carbon compared to quarter 2 2023 to 2024. In quarter one, the quarterly spend profile for the Capital programme wasn’t available. Therefore, the carbon figures provided in quarter one assumed a 25% spend of this year’s authorised annual carbon budget for the capital programme. At the end of quarter 2 we have used the quarter 2 reported expenditure which is lower than the assumed 50%.

Carbon emissions reporting for the Capital programme is captured for design and at the end of construction. It is annually and quarterly profiled using spend. Therefore, our emissions will vary each quarter, but remain on track to be below the authorised annual carbon budget for the end of year.

Only 3.5% of carbon data is made up of completed carbon assessments. The remaining 96.5% are from estimates, based either on detailed carbon planning tool (ERIC) forecasts (51%) and spend based forecasts (45.5%). Both actuals and forecasts are from a recognised industry leading PAS 2080 tool. FCRM have a plan, through contractual arrangements with our partners, to improve the level of actual data and reduce the level of forecast modelled data. The improvement in reporting actual data will be tracked by FCRM each quarter.

Cars

Our fleet continues to be green as we bring more electric vehicles onto the fleet with 61% of our cars now being electric. However, as reported the cars category is over budget at 169% at the end of quarter 2. Defra Group Fleet services are working with sustainable business in quarter 3 to correct this profiling issue and ensure it’s more aligned by year end.

Commuting and office use

Reported energy use from our offices has gone down slightly (17%). Defra Facilities management (FM) are continuing with various ongoing decarbonisation projects. Installing LEDs and lighting controls and heating decarbonisation will help reduce our emissions even more in future. It should be noted that some of our landlord consumption data is missing and Defra FM are working with their supplier to improve this.

Computers

Emissions from Environment Agency IT are over budget (148%) at quarter 2 2024 to 2025. There has been a slight reduction (18%) compared to quarter 2 2023 to 2024. As emissions are a reflection of the amount of assets we hold, performance next quarter may be affected by the Windows 11 roll out. This is where we temporarily hold more assets until the old Windows 10 ones have been removed.

Pumping

Emissions from static pumping are well under budget (50%) at quarter 2 2024 to 2025. We have seen a 30% decrease in energy use associated with the operation of our fixed assets. This is mainly from our emissions associated with the Ely Ouse water transfer scheme. This is operated much less than the same period last year due to wetter conditions.

Other direct

This category including:

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

is over budget (117%) at quarter 2 2024 to 2025 and has seen a significant increase of 43% compared to quarter 2 2023 to 2024. This is primarily due to a large quantity of operational fuel purchased in readiness for winter.

Other indirect

This category including:

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

is over budget (170%) at quarter 2 2024 to 2025, but remains similar to quarter 2 2023 to 2024.

Our total travel has increased by 6%, with ‘internal meetings’ being a significant reason.

However, our associated carbon emissions have gone down 17%, as we increasingly use train travel and our fleet becomes electrified.

The emissions from hotel stays have increased by 50% (42 tonnes) compared to quarter 2 2023 to 2024 which aligns with more travelling.

Quarterly Carbon dioxide equivalents emissions

Quarter	Total (tonnes)
Q1 2022 to 2023	53,901
Q2 2022 to 2023	121,056
Q3 2022 to 2023	181,032
Q4 2022 to 2023	295,832
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
Q2 2024 to 2025	78,658

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
This quarter our actions are centered on improving data from across the board both in quality and insight: net zero roadmap actions owners to report on progress for quarter 3 reporting.	Various directors as identified in the net zero roadmap.	31/12/2024
Services provided through Defra (energy use, IT emissions) need to improve timeliness, accuracy and granularity.	Environment Agency Sustainable Business team working with Defra Sustainability team to ensure integration	31/12/2024

17. Efficiency savings - cash releasing grant in-aid and Efficiency Savings - charges

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
Measure under development	Measure under development	£15 million	Measure under development	Measure under development
Measure under development	Measure under development	£8 million	Measure under development	Measure under development

18. We have a diverse workforce

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

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
6.4%	7.6%	7.6%	Red	Red

Commentary

This is our first report since updating our target to 7.6% (short term target) from 18% (still our long-term aspiration). Our target will be reviewed annually and our long-term goal is still to achieve representation in line with the UK Census data. Our representation at 30 September 2024 is 6.4% (860 individuals).

This represents a significant increase of 0.7 percentage points versus 12 months ago. However, the rate of increase has slowed this financial year. This is the highest representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic staff we’ve seen in the organisation, though still far from our long term goal.

In quarter 1 and quarter 2 2024, 48 (8.6%) leavers were from black, Asian and minority ethnic background, which is a 1.4% decrease from last year (11%). This is an encouraging trend that reflects the changes we’ve made to improve our employee offer. Of those leavers, 45.8% (22) completed an exit questionnaire. Based on this, the top reasons for leaving amongst black, Asian and minority ethnic staff were:

• end of contract (41%)
• career change (32%)
• lack of progression/career opportunity (18% respectively)

This differs from the top reasons for leaving amongst all staff who completed the exit questionnaire which were:

• career change (25%)
• salary (21%)
• retirement or lack of progression (20% respectively)

It is unclear as to why end of contract is such a prominent reason amongst black, Asian and minority ethnic leavers. However, this is likely to be linked to our Summer Development Internship programme (SDIP), which employed 26 individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds on fixed term contracts. Recent data shows that 3 interns were asked to stay on. Others were leaving us for further study or other internships/opportunities.

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 %
Q2 2024 to 2025	6.4 %

The percentage of senior staff who are female

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
46%	50%	50%	Amber	Amber

Commentary

We have a target of 50% female representation at an executive manager level. As of 30 September 2024, 46.3% (57) of our executive managers were female. This is comparable to performance 12 months ago, when 47% (50) of our executive managers were female. Although the number of female executive managers has increased, the percentage has stayed similar, due to a comparable increase in the number of male executive managers.

As of 30 September 2024, 41% (263) of our grade 7 managers were female. This has no change in performance from 12 months ago when 41% (255) of grade 7 managers were female. We are pleased that we have consistently maintained an increase in the number of both female executive manager and grade 7 managers. We will continue to work towards a higher percentage representation for both.

We will explore avenues to further develop our talent pipeline for female grade 7 managers looking to advance to executive manager level. We will consider this in our approach to internal mobility. We also continue to use inclusive recruitment practices to support diversity at senior levels. This includes ensuring that all roles recruited at grade 7 or above is conducted by diverse mixed sex panels for both shortlisting and interview. Often, these panels will include a desire to prioritise internal mobility. We have taken a step back from our policy which prioritised external advertising for all roles lasting 6 months or more. We are now looking at reinstating this policy to positively influence our recruitment of all underrepresented groups, including female senior leaders.

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%
Q2 2024 to 2025	46%

Actions	Owners	Deadlines
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) data dashboard pilots in hubs to be completed.	Strategy, Transformation and Assurance	31/01/2025
New executive directors team representative from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background to be in place.	Strategy, Transformation and Assurance	30/11/2024
Culture audit initial findings.	Strategy, Transformation and Assurance	31/01/2025
EDI training to be given to line managers and new mandatory EDI training to have been launched to the wider business.	Strategy, Transformation and Assurance	31/01/2025
Policies and guidance on reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment updated.	Strategy, Transformation and Assurance	31/12/2024

19. Minimised time lost to work related injuries

Q2 Actual	Q2 target	2024 to 2025 target	Q2 Status	Year end forecast
0.11	0.11	<0.11	Green	Green

Commentary

There were 6 lost time incidents (LTIs) this quarter, all of which were reportable to the Health and Safety Executive under RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations):

• 2 events related to slips, trips and falls
• 3 related to manual handling
• 1 related to a fall from height

Whilst the number of LTIs in quarter 2 is slightly below the longer term average, the LTI frequency rate is based on 12 months data.

We continue to monitor and review every lost time injury and to act if we identify lessons for the business. We act swiftly on new incidents to share early lessons with the business to raise awareness.

Work is ongoing to improve the accuracy of reporting by comparison with other data sources. When a change in the number of LTIs reported in previous quarters is identified, this scorecard is updated to reflect that change. In quarter one the LTI frequency rate was originally reported as 0.10, it has now been amended to 0.11.

Lost time incident frequency rate per 100,000 hours

12 month rolling average

Quarter	Number
January 2022	0.07
February 2022	0.06
March 2022	0.05
April 2022	0.05
May 2022	0.04
June 2022	0.05
July 2022	0.05
August 2022	0.05
September 2022	0.06
October 2022	0.06
November 2022	0.08
December 2022	0.08
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	0.11
May 2024	0.11
June 2024	0.11
July 2024	0.11
August 2024	0.11
September 2024	0.11

Number of LTIs

Quarter	Number
Q1 2022 to 2023	4
Q2 2022 to 2023	3
Q3 2022 to 2023	8
Q4 2022 to 2023	6
Q1 2023 to 2024	3
Q2 2023 to 2024	7
Q3 2023 to 2024	6
Q4 2023 to 2024	8
Q1 2024 to 2025	3
Q2 2024 to 2025	6