Where can you swim in the UK?

The map shows water-quality classifications from the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency — the three statutory regulators for designated bathing waters in mainland Britain. Where water companies publish near‑real‑time sewage discharge data, the map shows that too.

Coverage is uneven. Confident answers — safe, or use caution — come only from regions where we have both regulator classifications and live water-company data. The rest have a regulator classification but no live discharge data, and are shown as monitored — no current concerns: a softer signal than safe.

Many places people actually swim — wild swimming spots, urban rivers, lakes — are not designated bathing waters and are not on this map. The Thames is not a designated bathing water along most of its length; Henley swimmers are not regulator‑monitored. Adding those is a future phase. Read the methodology.