The Environment Agency will be given the power to access real-time raw data on sewage spills as part of a new bill designed to toughen the regulation of water companies, i understands.

The move is part of a crackdown on water companies ‘marking their own homework’ on pollution incidents, although water industry insiders questioned the effectiveness of the policy.

A new Water (Special Measures) Bill is set to bring in tougher regulations for water firms responsible for sewage pollution, the King confirmed today, as he set out the Government’s legislative plans for the next year.

It will cover a number of pledges set out in Labour’s manifesto, including “severe and automatic” fines for polluting water companies and powers to pursue personal criminal liability charges against executives.

Water companies will also be required to install real-time monitors at every sewage outlet and the data will be made available to regulators for scrutiny.

The Environment Agency already receives information about the more than 14,000 ‘storm overflows’ across the country from which water companies are allowed to dump sewage during periods of extreme rainfall to prevent their systems from becoming overwhelmed.

All of these outlets are already fitted with real-time monitors as a result of action taken by the previous government.

However, water companies also discharge sewage from a further 7,000 ‘emergency overflows’ – used during periods of electrical or mechanical failure – and the majority of these are not monitored.

The new Water (Special Measures) Bill will require water companies to fit monitors at all of these outlets.

i understands that the bill will also strengthen the Environment Agency’s powers to access the raw data from these monitors, compared to the current system whereby some water companies crunch the numbers before sending them to the watchdog.

It is understood that the Environment Agency will be able to access this data in real time from the start of next year.

Campaigners welcomed the proposal to tighten the scrutiny of water company data, but one water company source questioned whether the proposals would have much effect.

“For too long, water companies have been allowed to self-monitor and have proven repeatedly to be untrustworthy, so we welcome this news,” said James Wallace, CEO of the charity River Action.

Nick Measham, chief executive of WildFish, said: “Giving the Environment Agency the power to access raw data is a positive change for rivers and wild fish but only if the Agency is given the mandate and funding it needs to react to the data.”

However, a senior executive at one of the UK’s biggest water companies told i he was “struggling to see the fundamental change here”.

He said some water companies already publish the raw data from their monitors and suggested the new law did not fulfil Labour’s manifesto pledge to “ensure independent monitoring of every outlet”.

A briefing note to water companies from lobby group Water UK, seen by i, said Labour’s policy of “independent monitoring” was “interpreted as the extension, over time, of EDM [event duration monitoring] to emergency overflows coupled with some stronger audit powers over the data by regulators”.

It claimed officials had acknowledged the cost of doing this would need to be passed on through bills and that there “will be a timing and delivery issue here that needs thinking about”.

The new bill comes after 18 months of i campaigning to Save Britain’s Rivers, which are in a dire state due to a deluge of pollution from sewage works, farms and motorways.

In the lead-up to the general election, i called on all the major parties to commit to a five-point manifesto to reduce pollution and restore our waterways to their natural condition.

Some of these measures will be introduced into the new Water Bill, which will apply to England and Wales, including tougher powers for the regulator Ofwat and increased prosecutions against water companies.

But i is still calling on the Government to go further, for example by boosting funding to the Environment Agency so the watchdog is able to better hold water companies to account.