Water companies must be transparent with the public about sewage spill data, the UK’s information commissioner has warned.

John Edwards has written to the water companies calling on them to be as transparent as possible with their customers, and has asked them to disclose information related to sewage discharges every month.

Water companies have recently been uncooperative with data requests, refusing to reveal memos and data about sewage discharges.

The companies operate a monopoly, meaning customers cannot switch to another provider if they are unhappy with the service. One of the few powers the public has is to request data about sewage spills under freedom of information laws.

Labour’s animal-welfare and environmental policies may be better than the Tories’ – but they contain disappointing gaps, experts say.

In a YouGov poll last year, a third of voters said animal welfare was one of their top three issues.

So new environment secretary Steve Reed will come under pressure from lobby groups – and in some cases, from opposing countryside and farming factions.

Endangered eels are being released into rivers by school pupils across the West Country.

Schools in Gloucestershire and Somerset have been given tanks as part of a project to educate children about the species which is facing a "dramatic decline".

Flood defences like the Huntspill sluice are stopping millions of eels each year swimming through the Somerset Levels, the Sustainable Eel Group (SEG) said.

Pupils at Churchill School in Langford said they have “really enjoyed” feeding eels and releasing them back over the barrier at Tealham Moor.

Today, Monday 15th July, WTSWW reveals plans to improve habitats and recreate temperate rainforest at Trellwyn Fach near the Pembrokeshire coast. Rainforests used to cover much of the west coast of Britain, though were destroyed over hundreds of years and only fragments remain.

Rainforest restoration forms part of a wider programme of nature-based projects funded by Aviva to remove carbon from the atmosphere and help wildlife recover. Communities in Pembrokeshire will be closely involved in the project, with ambitions to provide volunteering, educational and employment opportunities, as well as improved access to nature.

The project at Trellwyn Fach is part The Wildlife Trusts’ Atlantic rainforest recovery programme, made possible through thanks to share of £38 million donation from Aviva.

The chicken industry is facing calls to halt the expansion of intensive production in the River Severn catchment, with campaigners warning that the river is at risk from the same pollution that has blighted the River Wye.

An outcry over the ecological plight of the Wye has effectively halted the proliferation of intensive poultry units across the catchment. Campaigners say that the pollution threat is being transported “from one catchment to the other”.

The ecological health status of the Wye was downgraded in May last year by Natural England. Campaigners warn of phosphates from poultry litter that are being washed into the Wye and fuelling the growth of algae blooms, which can suffocate a river.

A pod of 77 pilot whales that died after washing ashore in Orkney were healthy before they became stranded, according to initial findings.

The animals were found on the island of Sanday on Thursday following what could be the largest mass stranding in nearly 100 years.

Cetacean specialists - whose expertise is in aquatic mammals - have been examining tissue samples to establish the cause of the stranding.

Mariel ten Doeschate, from the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, told BBC Scotland News that thorough post-mortems had so far been carried out on about 30 whales.

A charity has warned there are no "litter fairies" in the Lake District and reminded visitors to take home their mess or risk harming the national park and its nature.

People expecting to find bins on open fells and a lack of knowledge about the impact of food waste are some of the reasons people leave litter strewn around, Friends of the Lake District said.

Research carried out by Keep Britain Tidy showed most people "don't want to litter" the national park, but do so when they are unprepared.

Highland Council has launched a 12-week public consultation on its draft Ecology Strategy and Action Plan.

The draft strategy and plan were approved at May’s meeting of Highland Council’s economy and infrastructure committee, setting out a set of actions to tackle biodiversity loss and address the ecological emergency.

Committee chairman, Councillor Ken Gowans, said: “The climate and ecological emergencies are interconnected, and biodiversity loss threatens our well-being and survival.

Gardeners are being urged to mow ‘uneven’ strips into their lawns this summer for a stark reason.

No Mow May is long since finished and gardeners across the UK have been breaking out the lawnmowers through various times in June and July - at leat, when the torrid wet weather has allowed.

But the ‘catch all’ approach of just marching onto the lawn and mowing the whole thing to one length is soon to be a thing of the past.

A goal to renature a huge swathe of land in Sussex and Hampshire to help fight biodiversity loss is almost halfway to its target.

In 2021, the South Downs National Park set a goal of transforming 13,000 hectares (32,100 acres) into habitat for wildlife by 2030.

A total of 6,082 hectares (15,000 acres) has so far been created or improved to help nature thrive.

A proposed £1.2bn scheme to recycle effluent from the sewage system and turn it in to drinking water has been criticised as a threat to the environment and a potential costly “white elephant”.

Southern Water wants to treat effluent – wastewater from the sewage system – at a plant at Havant in Hampshire and pipe it into a nearby spring-fed reservoir to boost water supplies during droughts. The scheme would ensure less water is extracted from two rare chalk streams: the Rivers Test and Itchen.

It would be the first reservoir in the country to use recycled water derived from effluent to supplement its levels. Regulators says effluent recycling is successfully used overseas, providing plentiful and safe supplies, but campaigners say there are more environmentally friendly options.

Anyone with even a passing interest in the natural world will have noticed a dramatic phenomenon this year: a lack of insects. Perhaps most noticeable is the near-absence of butterflies. Species that are usually common, such as large and small whites, small tortoiseshells, gatekeepers, ringlets, peacocks and meadow browns, are in many places down to the point of having almost disappeared. This is certainly the case where I live, in Cambridge.

Bee populations seem to be down here, too, with flowery margins that would at this time of year normally be alive with pollinators now eerily quiet. Hoverflies are depleted, moths scarce and aphids have either appeared very late or not at all. Buddleia bushes, with their fragrant mauve flowers that are usually festooned with butterflies, moths and many other insects, sit naked of their normal visitors.

There are several probable reasons for this sudden reduction compared with typical summers. The weather has not helped, with a cool and wet spring across much of the country suppressing insect numbers. But even with that factored in, this year’s sudden drop comes after many years of much longer-term decline.

A baby beaver has been born on a Northumberland estate for the first time in more than 400 years, the National Trust has announced.

The small aquatic mammal is thought to have been born in late May on the Wallington Estate.

It comes just a year after a family of Eurasian beavers were released into a large enclosed area on the 5,431 hectare National Trust site.

Stag beetle researchers have called on people across London to record any sightings to help track the insect's whereabouts and numbers.

Britain's largest beetle species has been in "steep decline" across much of Europe but the capital remains a "hotspot", according to the London Wildlife Trust.

The beetle, whose males have distinctive antler-like jaws, are most commonly found in west and south-west London's parks and woodlands.

North and east London has seen fewer recorded sightings over the years, which the trust says remains unexplained.

A species of beetle has been rediscovered after a gap of 86 years.

The great silver water beetle was found in a trap at the Great Fen in Cambridgeshire by a researcher surveying for newts.

The last record of the species in the area was at Wicken Fen in 1938, according to monitoring and research officer Henry Stanier.

"I was staring down at a much bigger beetle nearly four centimetres in size and unlike the others, which are black and yellow, this was jet black and looking very different... that's when we got very excited," he said.

Experts from around the UK have arrived in Orkney to carry out examinations and post-mortems on pod of 77 pilot whales that died after washing ashore.

The animals were found on the island of Sanday on Thursday following what could be the largest mass stranding in nearly 100 years.

Cetacean specialists - whose expertise is in aquatic mammals - will use tissue samples to establish the cause of the stranding.

A group of environmental campaigners have created an app to help keep track of pollution levels in local rivers.

The idea came from members of the River Rivelin and Loxley Rangers, a volunteer group based in Sheffield.

Users have been encouraged to submit photos and videos of pollution in the waterways that can then be reported to the Environment Agency

Campaigners have reacted with fury to proposed water bill increases for households amid the sewage pollution scandal and cost-of-living crisis.

Regulator Ofwat has issued draft proposals to put up bills by £19 a year on average, or £94 over five years, a third less than the £144 average requested by water companies.

Ofwat said its proposals approved a tripling of investment to make sustained improvement to customer services and the environment, including a 44% reduction in sewage spills from storm overflows, compared with levels in 2021, and plans for nine reservoirs to reduce water taken from rivers.

England has continued to issue permits allowing people to kill badgers to protect cattle from disease, despite local extinctions and scientific evidence stating that badger culling is not the best way to protect bovines. What's happening?

The Guardian reported that it accessed leaked documents showing that England's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs issued 17 new licenses in June that allow people to kill badgers. The publication explains that badger culling has been used in the country for years to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis to cattle and has led to local extinctions.

However, scientific reports have shown that culling badgers is not the most effective way to stop the spread of this disease, and DEFRA's decision overrules the advice of its own scientific adviser, Peter Brotherton, director of science for Natural England.

A pod of 77 pilot whales has washed ashore on a beach in Orkney in what could be the biggest mass strandings for decades.

Rescuers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) have established 12 of the animals at Tresness Beach on the island of Sanday are still alive - but it is unlikely they can be saved.

The pod includes male whales up to seven meters (22ft) long as well as females, calves and juveniles.

Scientists are calling on the public to help track how British butterflies are moving north as the climate heats up.

Examining 50 years of data, researchers from the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, which runs the annual Big Butterfly Count, have identified a clear northerly shift among many species, including the familiar garden favourites the comma, peacock and holly blue.

This is the result of climate breakdown creating warmer habitats, letting certain breeds grow substantially. The migratory red admiral is one example; typically found in southern England in the summer before migrating to Europe for winter, these winged creatures now reside year-round in the UK. Their populations have also increased threefold.

Scientists say "a reservoir of disease" is being created after discovering bacteria that naturally occur in rivers are becoming resistant to antibiotics due to the impact of sewage.

Researchers at the University of Suffolk said bacterial strains found on the non-tidal section of the River Deben in Suffolk had acquired resistance by exchanging DNA with antibiotic resistant E. coli.

Some bacteria have become resistant to the antibiotic carbapenem, which is used as the last line of defence in fighting infections already resistant to traditional antibiotics.

A farmer has revealed the identity of a mystery purple crop that has left people guessing on social media.

Trevor Edgley, who runs the Nightlayer Leek Company in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, found himself unable to drill wheat due to persistently wet fields during the spring.

He said he planted a special seed mix on land off the A142 between Chatteris and Mepal - called NUM3 - which encourages insects and wildlife.

Thames Water has failed to complete more than 100 upgrades to ageing sewage treatment works to meet legal pollution limits, the Guardian can reveal.

The schemes costing £1.1bn were supposed to cut pollution into rivers by increasing the capacity at sewage works, adding phosphorus removal to the treatment process, and installing new storm tanks. The upgrades, which were promised in 2018, are being paid for by customers as part of a five-year spending round to 2025 but will not be delivered within that timeframe.

Meanwhile, Thames Water awaits a crucial decision on Thursday from the regulator Ofwat on the company’s new five-year business plan. Thames wants to increase customer bills 59% by 2030 to pay for record investment of £19.8bn to tackle sewage pollution, leaks and water shortages after decades in which the company has sweated assets and underinvested.