Committee publication · Correspondence · 8 January 2026
Correspondence to Chris Train, Chair of South East Water regarding the hearing on Tunbridge Wells water outages, 6 January 2026
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Inquiry: Reforming the water sector
Summary
The EFRA Committee Chair writes to South East Water's Chair following a 6 January hearing on Tunbridge Wells water outages, raising serious concerns about the accuracy of evidence given by SEW's Chief Executive and Customer Services Director. The letter highlights major inconsistencies between SEW's account and that of the Drinking Water Inspectorate's Chief Inspector, including disputed causes of the incident, operational failures, and concerns about transparency and cooperation with regulators.
Key findings
- SEW attributed resilience issues to post-Covid practice changes and climate change, claiming no asset failures since 2021; the DWI Chief Inspector contradicted this, stating the incident 'should not have been a surprise' and was not due to source water issues.
- DWI identified systemic failures: insufficient coagulant testing, poor filter performance since 9 November, reliance on manual interventions with no online visibility ('flying blind'), unavailable scientists, and understaffed site operations (Monday-Friday daytime only, no control room).
- SEW failed to install a required microfiltration unit at Pembury Works despite an enforcement order and initially refused to provide water sufficiency planning data to the DWI, claiming inspectors lacked legislative power.
- The Chair indicates potential contempt of Parliament concerns regarding accuracy and intent of SEW's evidence, and warns witnesses of obligations to correct inaccurate testimony.
- Corporate governance issues are flagged as warranting public scrutiny, with the Chair minded to request a further evidence session with both SEW's Chief Executive and Chair present.
Tone
CriticalTopics
Key actors
Alistair Carmichael, Chris Train, David Hinton, Tanya Sephton, Marcus Rink, South East Water, Drinking Water Inspectorate
Notable line
“… backwash capacity (Q1381 and 1383) • A " reliance on manual interventions …”
Key Quotes
“… the event last year "should not have been a surprise " and that there was nothing wrong with the source water”
“… reliance on manual interventions, and a lack of online performance visibility to enable a critical assessment and response " …”
“Any act which may prevent or hinder the work of either House of Parliament, including misleading MPs, can amount to a Contempt of the House.”
“… in addition to examination of the company's response to the outage last year, there are issues of corporate governance that likely warrant public scrutiny.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗