More than one million tonnes of raw sewage is estimated to have been released from a pumping station into the North Sea in 2023.

Northumbrian Water produced the estimate of how much sewage was released from its Whitburn site after a Freedom of Information (FoI) request from South Tyneside resident Steve Lavelle.

A tribunal ruled the company needed to provide Mr Lavelle with the data.

A spokesperson for the water firm said it has “some of the lowest amounts and durations of spills in the country”.