UK “sick swimmer of Europe” on bathing water quality

EMBARGO: IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

• UK has third least bathing water sites per 100,000 in Europe behind only Slovakia and Romania

• Germany, France, Italy and Spain all have significantly more bathing waters than the UK - including far more for inland lakes and rivers

• Just 72% of the UK's bathing sites are in “excellent” condition with Albania, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland worse. 

New analysis by the Liberal Democrats of bathing water sites of EU countries (plus Albania and Switzerland) shows the UK is lagging far behind its European neighbours in both number and quality of sites.

The UK has 421 bathing sites, with the vast majority (407) being on the coast and just 14 being on inland lakes and rivers. Bathing water status means increased monitoring by the Environment Agency to protect the health of people bathing between May to September. 

Meanwhile, France, Italy, Germany and Spain top the list for number of bathing water areas, with Italy having over 5,000 sites, France over 3,000 and Germany and Spain over 2,000 each.

When looked at in terms of population Croatia has the most with 23 sites per 100,000, followed by Denmark (18), Greece and Malta (16), while the UK has just 0.62 sites per 100,000, ahead of only Slovakia (0.55) and Romania (0.25).

UK bathing sites are also among the worst in terms of cleanliness too. Just 72% of the UK’s bathing water sites are considered “excellent” - the top rating. Ahead of only Albania (67%), Estonia (65%), Hungary (63%), Slovakia (59%) and Poland (56%). The highest are Cyprus (99%) followed by Austria and Greece (97%). 

Earlier this year, the Liberal Democrats revealed that despite 21 applications being made for bathing water status in the last year just 2 were granted. 

Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP said: 

“The UK is officially the sick swimmer of Europe, with water companies allowed to get away with foul polluting habits.

“This government has failed spectacularly to protect our lakes, rivers and coastlines.  It has been shocking to see Ministers reject community bids for bathing water status, including in my own Lake District constituency. The public are rightly furious about this issue yet Conservative Ministers just don’t seem to care about it. 

“Liberal Democrats are calling for more sites to be designated bathing water, particularly rivers and lakes, complete reform of the water companies and a new water regulator to hold them to account. This has become a wild-west industry which needs law and order restoring.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

First covered by the Financial Times here.

Full data - Bathing Water Status - UK v Europe - Data 

Source: European data - State of bathing waters in 2022 — European Environment Agency

Source: UK data Bathing waters - GOV.UK