Abstraction Statistics (ABSTAT) from 2000 onwards

This record is for Approval for Access product AfA268. The Environment Agency is responsible for licensing the abstraction of water in England and Wales. Abstraction licences set out how much water can be abstracted and for what purpose (licensed abstractions). Licence holders may also be required to measure their abstractions and submit how much water has actually been abstracted (actual abstractions). ABSTAT does not to attempt to estimate unlicensed abstractions.
Abstraction Statistics (ABSTAT) provides details of licensed abstractions and estimates of actual abstractions on the basis of an agreed set of purpose categories and abstraction source types for each calendar year from 2000. It also supplies total number of licences issued for each purpose category.
Tables in general are supplied with regional breakdowns.
ABSTAT is updated each November. Abstracted quantities are measured in megalitres per day (ML/day).
This data is also available on the Defra website.
On request information can be provided for the period from 1995 to 2010
INFORMATION WARNING
1. Please read through the summary note 'ABSTAT_summary_v10_external version.pdf' before using ABSTAT (you will need Adobe Acrobat) 
2. Under the Water Act 2003 abstraction of up to 20m3/day became exempt from the requirement to hold a licence from 1 April 2005. As a result over 22,000 licences were deregulated (mainly for agricultural or private water supply purposes). 
3. Return requirements were changed from 01/04/2008 whereby licences that authorise under 100m3/day are no longer asked to submit records of abstraction to the Environment Agency. This may have had a minimal impact on some reported purposes e.g. agriculture, private water supply and other. 
4. From 01/04/2008 return requirements were standardised across England & Wales and the majority of returns are now requested on financial years. To align previous reporting practices two return requests were made for 2008. One at the end of the period January 2008 to March 2008 and a second at the end of period April 2008 to March 2009. This may have had an effect on underestimating actuals whereby returns may have been received for only part of the calendar year. 
5. Tables 3_20 & 3_21 do not include impoundment licences or transfer type licences. A licence may authorise abstraction from a single point for a single purpose in some instances a licence can authorise abstraction from multiple points and/or for multiple purposes. ABSTAT is a purpose driven report, so where a licence authorises abstraction for more than one purpose the licence is included in the count for each use category. This will result in an overestimation of the actual number of abstraction licences in force as reported by ABSTAT.
6. Spray irrigation is very sensitive to prevailing weather conditions. 
7. The Electricity Supply category includes hydropower licences. 
8. Table 3_20: data labels corrected in ABSTAT2010 update to calendar year (from financial year in previous ABSTAT updates). Change applies from 2000 for 'number of licences in force' and from 2008 for 'number of new licences determined'. Table 3-21: data label corrected to calendar year in ABSTAT2010 update (from financial year in previous ABSTAT updates).
9. From 1 April 2011 EA Thames and EA Southern merged to form EA South East. The two regions are still shown separately as this is the basis of the WR charges scheme, this is reflected by the underlying reference information used to prepare ABSTAT.
10. ABSTAT is a purpose driven report, so where a licence authorises abstraction for more than one purpose the licence is included in the count for each use category. This will result in an overestimation of the actual number of abstraction licences in force as reported by ABSTAT. 
11. Reference to financial year means 1 April to 31 March inclusive. Attribution statement: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2019. All rights reserved.

Tags: OpenData, water resources
Organization: Environment Agency