Consultation on Reform of the Bathing Water Regulations 2013

Overview

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.

Following final designation as bathing waters, coastal and inland waters are monitored by the Environment Agency (EA) in England and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) in Wales respectively. Water quality sampling and testing is used by local authorities to inform public health messaging on the health risks associated with bathing and identify where improvements are necessary.

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. There may be advantages to reforming the Regulations to allow for greater consideration of site-specific factors in these processes.  The purpose of the Regulations is to ensure the protection of public health through the use of monitoring and classifications. 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 3 proposed reforms as well as 9 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. This is a joint consultation from Defra and the Welsh Government. The decisions on whether legislation should be made to introduce reforms will be taken independently by relevant Ministers with respect to their own national jurisdictions. Regulations are currently shared, but the EA & NRW independently manage bathing waters within their own national jurisdiction.

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. We are 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. We are seeking views on whether additional monitoring to capture water quality variation across sites would be beneficial.