Sally March (sjmarch10@gmail.com) is Director, Drummond March & Co, in London, UK.

One of the UK’s regional water companies has been fined and publicly shamed for systematically gaming wastewater emissions testing. The findings are reminiscent of the VW emissions scandal—scheduling of visits to take samples were coordinated so that sample dates were easily predicted, staff involved in sampling were not sufficiently separate from the operating teams and breached confidentiality of testing dates, tips for avoiding detection were shared, and senior management colluded to conceal what was going on. “A culture of data manipulation was the norm and was accepted by staff across the division.”^[1]