• Water company bonuses rise this year despite sewage scandal
• 2024 on track to be record worst year for cancer care
• Cole-Hamilton reveals dozens of dentists retiring early in NHS exodus
• Only 7 days when CalMac sailings ran to timetable in 15 months

Water company bonuses rise this year despite sewage scandal

• Shocking research finds water company executives paid themselves more in bonuses and pensions this year

• England and Wales water firms hand out £9.1million in bonuses to executives this year

• Thames Water, Severn Trent and South West Water worst offenders for paying executives even more in bonuses this year

• Liberal Democrats call for immediate ban on water company bonuses

Shocking new research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed water company executive bonuses have risen to £9.1m in 2023/2024.

The bosses of disgraced firms received over £20m in total, including basic pay, pension contributions and bonuses.

The party’s annual Sewage Bonus Tracker using analysis of Company House records, found water firms including Thames Water, Severn Trent and South West Water all increased their bonus pool for executives, despite polluting waterways with raw sewage.

The new findings come despite 2023 being a record year for the amount of sewage dumped into waterways, with Environment Agency data revealing more than 3.6m hours of sewage flowed into rivers and seas, up a staggering 105% annually.

Thames Water bonus payouts to executives almost double year-on-year, from £746,000 in 2022/2023 to a staggering £1.3m 2023/2024. This is despite Thames Water’s CEO quitting halfway through the year following financial issues.

The biggest bonus payout for executives was by Severn Trent, who paid their 3 executives an eye-watering £3.3million in bonuses, an increase year-on-year.

Pension contributions for water company executives rose to a new high of £1.7m this year. Thames Water paid their executives £754,000 in pension contributions alone last year.

Base pay for water company executives also remained at over £9m last year, with just one executive at Northumbrian Water paying themselves £421,000.

The Liberal Democrats have called for an immediate ban on all water company bonuses whilst the sewage scandal continues. The party will push for a parliamentary vote for an outright ban on bonuses by tabling an amendment to the government’s Water (Special Measures) Bill.

Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:

It is a national scandal that these bonuses are being paid out by firms who disgustingly pollute rivers, lakes and beaches. These executives are pocketing more every year whilst sewage levels rise. Frankly, the whole thing stinks.

The last Conservative government shamefully let these disgraced firms get away with it, and now the new government has to step up.

These bonuses are an insult to the British public and must be banned straight away. The Liberal Democrats will push for a vote in Parliament to ban these bonuses whilst sewage continues to flow.

2024 on track to be record worst year for cancer care

This year is on track to be the worst year on record for cancer care since the NHS last met its target in 2015 with the number of patients treated outside of the 62-day standard from referral to starting treatment set to reach 107,000 if current trends continue, according to analysis of the latest NHS data.

It should take 62-days from a referral to starting cancer treatment according to the NHS but already this year 72,000 patients have been treated outside this window. This puts it on track to reach 107,000 by the end of the year and be the worst year on record for cancer care since the health service last met its target of treating 85% of patients within this 62-day time frame in 2015.

It follows from the entirety of 2023, which was also a record for the number of people treated outside the 62-day window, where 100,000 patients were not treated within this target across the full 12-months.

Staggeringly, this will be a near fourfold increase in the number of patients not treated within the 62-days. For the full year of 2015, when the NHS last met its 85% treated within 62-days target, 27,000 patients were treated outside the 62-days, through the first eight-months of 2024 that now sits at 72,000 and is on track to hit 107,000 by the end of the year.

The situation for cancer care in the NHS has been steadily getting worse with every year since 2017 seeing a rise in the number of patients treated outside of the 62-day window.

The Liberal Democrats said that the figures underscored “the legacy of neglect” that the Conservative Party oversaw in the NHS, and used their first full opposition day since 2009 earlier this week to focus on the crises in health and care.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP said:

When someone is diagnosed with cancer it is often one of the most difficult moments of their lives. We know that starting treatment as quickly as possible is vital to chances of survival in many cases and it is heartbreaking to know that there are far too many cases where people are waiting too long for care.

The previous Conservative government should hang their heads in shame. Their legacy of neglect and mismanagement of our NHS has left patients without the care they deserve.

It is now down to the new government to rise to the greatest challenge facing us, rescuing the health service. That is why I am proud that on our first opposition day of this Parliament, the Liberal Democrats put the crises in health and care at the heart of it and we will continue to focus relentlessly on tackling these issues.

Cole-Hamilton reveals dozens of dentists retiring early in NHS exodus

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today revealed that Scotland is losing dozens of dentists every year to early retirement despite dentist shortages across the country.

A freedom of Information request submitted by the Scottish Liberal Democrats to the Scottish Public Pensions Authority revealed that of the 334 dentists who have retired since 2020, just 10 waited until the state pension age (SPA) to do so.

In November 2023, the Scottish Government introduced a revised payment system for NHS dental treatments, which will see an increase in the prices for patients. The cost to a patient of a single tooth extraction will rise from £14.76 to £28.84. The cost of a basic acrylic denture will jump from £70 to £117.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

The SNP have left NHS dentistry to rot and people are in pain. In areas like Fife there isn’t a single NHS dentist currently open to new patients.

Access to toothcare should be no different from any other form of medical treatment. People should be able to rely on treatment being readily available, close to home.

Instead we are seeing dentists retiring early or ditching NHS work because engaging with the Scottish Government is worse than pulling teeth.

This shortage of dentists creates stress for patients and increases the workload for those who remain. The Health Secretary needs to look at what can be done to encourage experienced staff to stay on.

Scottish Liberal Democrats are very proud of the part we played in introducing free dental checks in Scotland and in pressing for a new dental school to address the shortage of dentists. However, that good work is being undone by SNP ministers whose attention is always elsewhere.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have set out plans that would end dental deserts and bring back local NHS dentists. It would see ministers rewrite their failed NHS Recovery Plan, prioritise workforce planning and boost the number of dentists taking on NHS patients.

Only 7 days when CalMac sailings ran to timetable in 15 months

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today said that the SNP have let down islanders for too long after new research by his party found that there were only 7 days when CalMac sailings ran to their scheduled timetable in 15 months.

A Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information request found that between 1 January 2023 and 31 March 2024:

• There were just 7 days when all timetabled CalMac sailings “performed to schedule.”
• Ferries were cancelled (performed below schedule) on 285 days out of 456. This is a rise of 24% when compared to 1 January 2022-31 March 2023.
• More and more ferries are being cancelled for technical reasons, causing the loss of 5,251 sailings across the 15-month period, up 57% compared to last year.

Mr Rennie said:

The SNP have let down islanders for too long.

Despite the maintenance bill for ferries spiralling, there is almost nothing to show for it. More than 5,000 ferries were cancelled for technical reasons in the last year.

Islanders are losing business, missing events and hospital appointments. The SNP have had 17 years to sort this out; they have no one else to blame but themselves.

Scottish Liberal Democrats would get the basics right and stand up for island communities. That starts by making sure islanders have access to the ferries they need and rebuilding our country’s economic reputation, which has been sorely undermined by the SNP.