Important water pollution decision handed down by Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal has delivered judgment in the highly anticipated case of R (Pickering Fishery Association) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, [2025] EWCA Civ 378.

This case, brought on behalf of a fishery association in Yorkshire, relates to the approach which the Environment Agency has taken to generating (and the Secretary of State to approving) programmes of measures under the Water Framework Directive. The Court of Appeal, dismissing the Secretary of State’s appeal, held that the approach taken by Defra and the Environment Agency to the preparation and approval of River Basin Management Plans is unlawful because programmes of measures under the Water Framework Directive Regulations must identify actions for each water body to achieve the environmental objectives for that water body.

In court the Secretary of State and Environment Agency had maintained that they were entitled to produce programmes of measures for each waterbody which were drafted at a national level or in a generic way rather than identifying measures which were specific to each waterbody and which would aim to achieve compliance with the Water Framework Directive goals of achieving ‘good’ status for all waterbodies by 2027.

Given the current, heightened, interest in the pollution of watercourses across the UK this decision is a welcome clarification of the obligations on the Secretary of State and the Environment Agency to improve water quality.

Nicholas Ostrowski appeared for the Office for Environmental Protection (instructed by Kate Tandy and Alice Puritz-Evans) and made written submissions.