14 November 2024

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has launched a survey regarding the reform of the 2013 Bathing Waters Regulations.

Bathing waters are currently managed under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 (hereafter, ‘the Regulations’) which apply to both England and Wales. The Regulations transposed the 2006 EU Bathing Water Directive into domestic law and were assimilated into UK law under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023.

There have been changes in how and where people use bathing waters since the Regulations were introduced. In their current form, the Regulations take a generally ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to bathing water designations, water quality monitoring and the de-designation process.

It is the Government’s intention to pursue an increase in the designation of safe bathing water sites. For these reasons, DEFRA and the Welsh Government are consulting on potential reform measures to improve the current Regulations and increase flexibility. This consultation seeks views on three proposed reforms as well as nine technical amendments to improve the use of EA and NRW resources and bring the Regulations in line with modern sampling practices. It also seeks views on two wider reforms that may form part of future phases of regulatory reform.

Proposed reforms

Core reform 1: Remove the automatic de-designation provision from the Regulations. Currently, bathing waters are automatically de-designated following five consecutive years of ‘poor’ classification. This is often too short a time for investments and improvements to be made. De-designations would instead be based on review and recommendation by the EA and NRW. 

Core reform 2: Include the feasibility of improving a site’s water quality to at least ‘sufficient’ as a criterion for final designation. This would avoid poor value for money, by limiting expenditure where water quality improvement is not feasible or proportionate. 

Core reform 3: Remove the fixed dates of the monitored bathing season from the Regulations. Season dates would be moved into guidance allowing the EA and NRW to adapt the dates to better suit local needs in the future. 

Wider reform 1: Clarification and expansion of the definition of ‘bathers’ to include other water users. ‘Bathers’ is currently understood by its common meaning as swimmers only. DEFRA is seeking views on whether a wider range of water users should be considered, and if so, what other types of users should be included and how their needs can be balanced against current users.   

Wider reform 2: Use of multiple monitoring points at each bathing water site where useful to classify water quality. DEFRA is seeking views on whether additional monitoring to capture water quality variation across sites would be beneficial.

Both British Marine members and the wider public are encouraged to take part in this survey.  A link to the full document and survey can be found here:

https://consult.defra.gov.uk/water/bathing-water-reforms-consultation/

The consultation closes on 23 December 2024.