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The Bathing Water Directive and revised Bathing Water Directive

The main objective of the Bathing Water Directives (76/160/EEC and 2006/7/EC) is to protect public health and the environment from faecal pollution at bathing waters. Member States are required to identify popular bathing areas and to monitor water quality there throughout the bathing season, which in England runs from mid May to the end of September.

The original Directive (76/160/EEC) sets a number of microbiological and physio-chemical standards that bathing waters must either comply with (“mandatory” standards) or endeavour to meet (“guideline” standards). The two main standards used to assess the quality of bathing water are total coliforms and faecal coliforms, which are bacteria found in the guts of humans and other warm-blooded animals and are indicators of faecal pollution. 

Research into bathing water and human health since the original Directive’s introduction in 1976 has led to the development of the revised Bathing Water Directive(2006/7/EC), which will be implemented in stages between now and 2015, when the original Directive will be repealed.  The revised Directive uses two parameters to assess water quality, Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci, using a four year data set for each set of results, and sets much tighter standards than the original Directive.

There will be four classification categories: Excellent (approximately twice as stringent as the current Guideline standard); Good (similar to the current Guideline); Sufficient (approximately twice as stringent as the current Mandatory standard) and Poor, for waters which do not comply with the Directive’s standards.

There will be a new requirement for information about water quality and potential sources of pollution at bathing waters to be provided on signs and via the internet.  Regular reviews of the list of bathing waters will be carried out and the public will be encouraged to participate in the review.

Key dates for the introduction of the revised Directive are:

  • 2011: The Environment Agency will publish a profile for each bathing water in England and Wales
  • 2012: Signs must be in place at all bathing waters by the beginning of the bathing season. The Environment Agency will begin monitoring using the parameters of the revised Directive
  • 2014: Final bathing water report using the standards of the current Directive
  • 2015: First set of classifications using the new parameters will be published, based on the data set commenced in 2012
  • 2016: New classifications will appear on the signs using symbols that are being prepared by the EC

For background information about the revision process and the content of earlier proposals visit the National Archive website see the history of the revision.

Between November 2007 and February 2008 Defra held a consultation to seek views on the revised Directive. The consultation document, impact assessment, and summary of responses are now available from the National Archives website.

Legislation and administration

The Bathing Water Directives are administered in England by Defra and in the rest of the UK by the relevant Devolved Administration.  Bathing water enquiries in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should be directed to the Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly Government and Department of Environment Northern Ireland respectively.

The Directive is implemented in the UK by the following regulatory authorities:

Contact details for queries relating to implementation of the Directive can be found at the above websites.

The texts of both Directives and the transposing Regulations are available here:

Also forming part of the transposing legislation is the Bathing Waters (England) Notice 2008, issued by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 26 September 2008. It revokes the notices given under section 83 (1) of the Water Resources Act 1991 and under paragraph 3(1)(a) of Schedule 1 to the Bathing Waters (Classification) Regulations 1991 on 5 May 1992, 14 February 1997 and 13 June 2003.

Bathing water profiles

The revised Directive requires Member States to establish a profile for each bathing water based on the physical, geographical and hydrological characteristics of the bathing water and assessing the risks of pollution.

The profiles will provide key information for inclusion in the general description of the bathing water on the signs.

The Environment Agency will complete its work on profiles of bathing waters in England and Wales by March 2011.

The European Commission has produced an explanatory document, Bathing Water Profiles: Best Practice and Guidance (PDF, Europa website).

Guidance for bathing water controllers

Guidance is now available about the revised Directive's requirment to provide information to the public.

Bathing waters in the UK

During the 2010 bathing season 413 bathing waters were monitored in England, 803 in Wales, 82 in Scotland and 24 in Northern Ireland, making a total of  5993 bathing waters across the UK. Of these sites,587 are coastal or estuarine waters and 12 are inland freshwater sites.

Two new bathing waters were designated in England in 2010: East Runton in Norfolk and Minster Leas in Kent.  Four bathing waters were removed from the list: Barmston in Yorkshire, because of coastal erosion, and Aldingham, Bardsea and Newbiggin in Cumbria, because of tidal conditions in Morecambe Bay.

Country 2009 2010
England 414 1 413 2
Wales 81 80 3
Scotland 80 82
Northern Ireland 24 24
UK total 599 5993

1 This number does not include three bathing waters (Blackpool North, Barmston and Newhaven) which were inaccessible during 2009.

2 This number does not include two bathing waters (Blackpool North and Newhaven) which remain inaccessible to samplers and to the public.

3 These numbers were previously shown as 81 bathing waters in Wales and 600 in the UK, but Tywyn was closed for seafront engineering works.

Designation of new bathing waters in England

The revised Directive aims to keep bathers well informed about water quality and encourages the participation of the public in its implementation, particularly in reviewing the list of bathing waters so that it includes all beaches and inland waters that are used by large numbers of bathers.  A “large number” is regarded as a number considered to be large in relation to past trends or to infrastructure and facilities provided to promote bathing.

Information about how to apply for a beach or inland freshwater site to be identified as a bathing water, including the contact details for the Bathing Water team at Defra, can be found here:

Identification of new bathing waters in England

The current list of bathing waters in England can be found here:

Bathing water monitoring results in England and the UK 2010

The bathing water monitoring results for the 2010 season in England and the UK were announced on the 15 November 2010:

A detailed summary report of mandatory compliance results for UK bathing waters for all parameters under the Directive is available here:

Mandatory standards

Meeting the mandatory water quality standards of the Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) is the minimum legal requirement. Mandatory standards are given for 10 parameters: total coliforms, faecal coliforms, salmonella, enteroviruses, pH, colour, mineral oils, surface active substances (detergents), phenols and transparency. The Directive also sets the minimum frequency at which bathing waters should be sampled.

Cases of non-compliance with the physico-chemical parameters are extremely rare so compliance in the UK each year is normally determined by the extent of pollution by total and faecal coliform bacteria.

To comply with these standards, bathing waters must not exceed values of 10,000 total coliforms per 100ml and 2000 faecal coliforms per 100ml in 95% of samples.

In 2010, 97.6 per cent of bathing waters in England complied with these microbiological standards, with 10 of the 413 waters failing to meet the minimum standards of the Directive.

The table below shows percentage compliance with the mandatory standards for total and faecal coliforms in England only and in the UK over the last decade.

Year '01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10
England % compliance 97.8 98.5 98.8 98.3 98.8 99.5 97.8 96.1 98.3 97.6
UK % compliance 95.3 97.8 98.4 97.7 98.4 99.5 96.5 95.8 97.7 97.3

Guideline standards

The Bathing Water Directive also sets more stringent guideline microbiological standards that Member States must endeavour to observe.

To comply with the guideline standards, bathing waters must not exceed values of 500 total coliforms per 100ml and 100 faecal coliforms per 100ml in 80% of water quality samples, and 100 faecal streptococci per 100ml in 90% of samples taken.

In 2010, 72.6 per cent of all bathing waters in England met this tighter standard. This is the guideline standard that constitutes the water quality criterion of the international Blue Flag award scheme.

The table below shows percentage compliance with the highest guideline standards for total coliforms, faecal coliforms, and faecal streptococci in England only and in the UK over the last decade.

UK Guideline compliance

Year '01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10
England % compliance 59.6 69.8 73.5 67.1 73.7 75.1 72.5 65.7 69.8 72.6*
UK % compliance 57.3 67.6 74.2 67.9 74.0 75.0 70.8 63.9 69.4 71.3

*amended from 72.5%

See the Environment Agency website for more detailed information on bathing water quality results in England and Wales, including compliance results for individual bathing waters.

UK compliance compared with other EU Member States

The UK's bathing water results are reported to the European Commission each year to inform its annual report.  The report for the 2009 season is available here:

The report indicates that the UK’s compliance rate with mandatory standards was slightly above the EC average but compliance with the more stringent guideline standards remained below average. The report for the 2010 bathing season will be published in May or June 2011.

The EU bathing water report assesses guideline compliance using the same standards as the UK guideline for total and faecal coliforms but does not take the parameter for faecal streptococci into account.  The table below shows percentage compliance with the EC guideline standard for England only and for the UK over the last 10 years.

EC Guideline compliance

Year '01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10
England % compliance 69.2 76.4 81.8 78.5 83.8 79.7 78.3 70.5 80.2 85.7*
UK % compliance 65.7 73.8 81.9 78.3 82.5 79.2 75.6 68.3 79.3 82.3

* amended from 85.5%

Bathing water quality prediction trial 2009

Following the Consultation on the revised Bathing Water Directive* we indicated that main objective for Defra and the Environment Agency would be to achieve the Directive’s ‘sufficient’ water quality classification at all the bathing waters in England by 2015.  As part of that, we hoped to use a water quality prediction system at some bathing waters, provided a workable system could be developed**.

Between 2005 and 2009 we funded the Environment Agency to develop and trial a prediction system at eight bathing waters in England and two in Wales. The project showed that the system was not sufficiently accurate in predicting poor water quality for us to be confident in using it to give advice to the public on whether to bathe. We have now come to the conclusion that such a system is not technically feasible and we are not currently in a position to fund further research into a prediction system.

We will not be proceeding with a prediction and discounting system. However we will ask the Agency and bathing water controllers to make it clear in their profiles and beach signage where heavy rain and other regular conditions may affect local bathing water quality.  This will provide the public with information to make an informed decision on whether to bathe where water quality is poor or at risk of becoming poor.

We will keep a watching brief on developments and costs in predictive tools to assess whether a system may be possible in the future, but in the medium term we will be unable to fund the Agency or external proposals for development of such a system. It is therefore very unlikely that the first classifications in 2015 will include discounting of samples.

* Summary of responses to the Consultation on the implementation of the revised Bathing Water Directive – 12 November 2007 to 4 February 2008, May 2008.
** The Directive allows a proportion of samples taken under predictable short term pollution to be disregarded which could help with classification.

Projected classifications under Directive 2006/7/EC

The Environment Agency has used the new standards and four years of water quality monitoring data (2007 to 2010) to assess the compliance rate that might be expected in England and Wales under the revised Bathing Water Directive.

It is important to appreciate that these assessed results assume that no further action is taken to improve water quality. The projected classifications using current data for each bathing water in England and Wales are available:

The assessment for England is based on 407 bathing waters because it excludes those that have been designated since 2007 or have been closed to samplers and the public during the relevant period. It shows that 88 per cent of bathing waters would meet at least the "sufficient" classification, compared with 97.6 per cent that met mandatory standards in 2010. 48 bathing waters are predicted to be classified as "poor".

Number of bathing waters in England assessed to be in each classification category under the revised Bathing Water Directive (based on current water quality results):

Classification No. of bathing waters assessed in England % of bathing waters assessed in England1
Excellent 209 51
Good 99 24
Sufficient 51 13
Poor 48 12
Total 407 100

1To the nearest whole number

Over the coming years Defra and the Environment Agency will be working closely with stakeholders to determine the most appropriate course of action to be taken at bathing waters, particularly those at risk of failing the new standards.

The improvements will comprise the programme of measures commenced in 2009 under the Water Framework Directive, aimed at achieving a sufficient or higher classification by 2015. The measures will include improvements to sewerage infrastructure and action to reduce diffuse pollution.

Cleaner Seas Forum

The Cleaner Seas Forum has been established to help drive further improvements to bathing and shellfish water quality and to consider the provision of information to the public at bathing waters.  It will bring together organisations representing bathing water users and controllers, water companies, farmers, the shellfish and tourist industries and government to work together to achieve improvements to water quality and public information.   

The inaugural meeting was held on 19 October 2010 and was chaired by Richard Benyon, the Minister for Natural Environment and Fisheries. Minutes from this meeting are available on request, by emailing: bathingwater@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Bathing water newsletter

To keep everyone who is interested in or affected by our work informed of its progress, we issue a Bathing Water Newsletter:

For newsletters from 2006 and 2007 visit the National Archives website.

As well as viewing the newsletter on the Defra website you can also receive it via email.  If you would like to be added to the mailing list and receive future email editions of the newsletter, or if you would like to request copies of past issues, contact: bathingwater@defra.gsi.gov.uk.

Health advice on beaches and bathing

Health advice about beaches and bathing water is available on the Health Protection Agency's website.

Beach awards

There are a number of voluntary beach award schemes in operation in the UK, which have bathing water quality as an essential requirement for the award. These include the Blue Flag scheme and the Good Beach Guide. For more information see the following websites:

Page last modified: 24 February 2011
Page published: 31 May 2002