Polluting firms handed a total of £3.6m to more than 30 environmental charities over a nine-month period, latest official figures show.

From November last year to the end of July this year the companies, including water firms, handed charities the money as part of agreement enforcement undertakings with the Environment Agency.

The largest single contribution to a charity was for £600,000 from Severn Trent Water Limited, after it discharged effluent into a tributary of West Meadow Brook in Leicestershire two years ago. The money was handed to Trent Rivers Trust.

The same water company also paid Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust £327,500 after it caused a sewage discharge into Dimpore Brook, in Gloucester.

Another water firm to hand over a substantial sum to a charity is Yorkshire Water Services Limited. In January this year it handed £200,000 to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust after unauthorised “incidents involving water discharge activity” at Melbourne sewage treatment works six years ago.

Meanwhile, £414,000 was given by Budweiser Budvar UK Limited to Keep Britain Tidy. This award was made after the Bristol based beer distribution firm breached recycling regulations for 18 years.

In an another case Glaxo Operations UK Limited handed Cumbria Wildlife Trust £200,000 for offences around unauthorised water discharge activity.

Other charities to benefit from money from polluting firms and those in breach of environmental rules include The Woodland Trust, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, East Mercia Rivers Trust and the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country.

Enforcement undertakings see those that breach environmental regulations, including polluting waterways or not meeting recycling requirements, agree to hand over funding to relevant green charities impacted.

Undertakings are also in place to “put right the effects of their offending” and as a deterrent against further breaches.

The worst offenders will still be prosecuted but undertakings are in place when the Environment agency feels it is not in the public interest to prosecute and firms’ offer to charities can address the impact of their offending.

They are also in place when money on offer “restores or enhances the natural capital of England”.

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