More River Pollution, More Anger

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.4 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, the Environment Agency reported a 60% rise in serious pollution incidents by water companies within a year. There were 2,801 pollution incidents in England in 2024, the highest on record, up from 2,174 in 2023. The cross-party Public Accounts Committee called the situation “woeful” and said regulators were “missing in action.” The data comes ahead of a landmark review of the water industry, to be published on Monday. Adam is joined by Esme Stallard, Climate and Science Journalist, and Joe Crowley, Investigative Journalist who has made three BBC Panorama documentaries on the industry. Also, doctors say eight UK babies have been born using genetic material from three people to prevent devastating and often fatal conditions. Adam discusses this with James Gallagher, Presenter of Inside Health on Radio Four.

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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Gabriel May. The social producers were Grace Braddock and Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:04.8	Hello, in the last episode of Newscast, we were talking about how the government is going to extend
0:08.4	voting in general elections to 16 and 17-year-olds by the time of the next election,
0:13.6	which we think will be in 2029.
0:15.4	And then Chris and I were talking about what were we doing when we were 16,
0:18.7	and I did a list of all the amazing films that came out in 1996. But then I thought, hang on, maybe 1997, when I was 17 was even better, and I was right. Get a load of this, Titanic, Lost World Jurassic Park, Men in Black, Tomorrow Never Dies, Air Force One, as good as it gets, liar, liar, my best friend's wedding, the fifth element, and the full Monty.
0:39.0	I mean, that I could argue is perhaps one of the best years in cinema of my lifetime.
0:47.6	Responses on a postcard, please. Only to slow them coming in. Right, let's get on with the latest episode of Newscast and we'll catch up with some news from the 18th of July 2025. Newscast. Newscast from the BBC. He has just compared me to the
1:01.6	fat controller. Did I say that? I can't believe I said that. Next question. This is R for the
1:07.6	benefit of Earth. I'm not personally a huge Sabrina Carpenter fan. I don't think I'm
1:12.7	being rude. I like landscapes. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey.
1:18.3	Hello, it's Adam in the newscast studio. And shortly I'll be joined by a friend of the podcast,
1:22.6	James Gallagher from Inside Health on Radio 4, who is going to explain a very interesting story to us,
1:27.9	but one that does require some explanation.
1:30.7	So I'm glad he's going to be here.
1:32.0	But first of all, there's some more data out about the amount of pollution and sewage going into rivers and lakes in England.
1:42.5	This is data for 2024, and it shows that there were the highest number
1:47.4	of serious pollution incidents in England on record and a big increase on the previous year.
1:54.5	And you'll remember we spent a lot of last year reporting on how people were calling on the
1:58.7	government and the water companies to reduce the number of spills. So there's a lot to untangle here, but I've got two people who spend their whole lives doing that. Joining us on the line is BBC Science and Climate Correspondent, Esme Stalard. Hi, nice to be here. And also welcome back, Joe Crowley, investigative journalist who has done several panoramas about the water industry.
2:18.7	Hello again, Joe. Hi, Adam. Nice to see it. Thanks for coming on. So, Esme, give us sort of the simple
2:24.3	headline from all this data we've got today. As I just say, massive data dump, top lines are the most
	...

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