Prof Peter Hammond

“Hammond said he found about 86% of the raw sewage spilling hours took place when there had not been heavy rain, meaning those discharges could be potentially illegal.”

“None of England's water companies did well in Hammond's analysis, with even the best having a potential illegality rate of over 70% for the last two years.”

“He looked at more than 350 storm overflow outlets in England and whether there had been heavy rain when they were spilling sewage.”

“The outlets include all of the largest sewage treatment works and a representative selection of smaller ones, across all England's nine water companies serving more than 30m people.”

“but said it shows that for more than 80% of the time sewage was being spilled, the weather was 'normal' - making the spills possibly illegal.”