In 2021, the water companies produced 801,721 tonnes of sewage sludge – 94.4% of this was used in agriculture (across 150,376 hectares of land). We reviewed water company data to check compliance with the Sludge (Use in Agriculture) Regulations (SUiAR), the Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR) and the water industry voluntary Safe Sludge Matrix. We continued to suspend the EPA sludge disposal and use metric whilst we completed a review of our compliance assessment approach. We have re-published our regulatory position statement with conditions enabling the supply, storage and spreading of sewage sludge containing other materials (on GOV.UK in February 2022). To address pressures on the sludge supply chain to agriculture we published our regulatory position statement for storing treated sewage sludge. Work continues on our strategy for safe and sustainable sludge use (published on GOV.UK in March 2020) to move sludge regulation from the SUiAR to the EPR in 2023. We continue to assess water company sludge disposal and use and are enabling innovation through the price review process to achieve good environmental outcomes.