During the summer water samples are taken at popular UK bathing beaches and tested for bacteria which could
indicate the presence of pollution from sewage and/or animal waste. At the end of the bathing season these results
are then used to assign one of the following four grades to each beach:

‘Mandatory’ is the legal minimum standard which sets limits for the number of total coliforms and faecal
coliforms present in the sea water. Beaches which do not meet this standard are classified as ‘Fail’.

‘Guideline’ is a tighter UK standard which sets lower limits for total coliforms and faecal coliforms, and also
a limit for faecal streptococci.

‘MCS Recommended’ is our gold standard for excellent water quality. To achieve this beaches must meet
the Guideline standard, with the inclusion of any samples taken during wet weather which may have been legally
removed from government assessments by means of the ‘abnormal weather waiver’. Any local continuous sewage
discharges must be appropriately treated to remove the majority of bacteria and viruses using, as a minimum,
secondary treatment.

All of the results on our website are for samples taken during summer 2011.

Wet weather can lead to poor water quality – stay out of the sea for at least 48 hours after a storm to avoid
exposure to storm pollution.

See our ‘Clean Seas Matter’ page to find out more about water quality standards.