A Government 'crackdown' to punish water companies for pumping sewage into Britain's rivers, lakes and coast has failed to produce a single new prosecution, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Billed as the 'largest criminal action against water companies in history', Labour minister Steve Reed triumphantly announced a year ago that 81 probes had been launched into serious and significant pollution incidents.

But the MoS found that, apart from seven cases already going through the courts, not a single new charge has been laid by the Environment Agency. 

Instead, responding to a Freedom of Information request, the regulator defended its prosecution record with the Yes Minister-style line: 'A significant or serious breach does not necessarily equate to a serious offence.'

It said that '58 of these referenced investigations are still ongoing'.

Rivers Trust chief executive Mark Lloyd said it was 'absolutely unacceptable that prosecutions for serious pollution incidents take so long'.

Mr Reed was Environment Secretary in May last year when he issued a press release headlined: 'Record 81 criminal investigations launched into water companies under Government crackdown.'

Now Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Mr Reed wrote: 'With this Government, water companies who break the law will finally be punished for their disgraceful behaviour.' 

He was backed by EA chief executive Philip Duffy, who said the agency would not hesitate to 'take robust enforcement action'.

Lib Dem MP Freddie Van Mierlo blasted: 'The public were promised a tough new era of enforcement, yet a year on not a single new charge appears to have been brought.'

Surfers Against Sewage chief Giles Bristow called the so-called crackdown 'nothing more than smoke and mirrors'. 

But an EA spokesman insisted: 'We will always prosecute water companies for the most serious offences.'

And the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: 'After years of failure, this government has taken swift action to hold water companies to account.'