The level of charges is designed to fund the water resource management activities in that region, and so are a proxy for water scarcity (less water implies more work to manage it) (see Chapter 3). Pollution charges are set nationally for England, and for an individual permit holder they reflect the conditions in the permit which are tailored to Environmental Quality' Standards in each river basin. Discharge charges cover the costs of regulation, modelling and compliance monitoring. It has only done this once in the past 30 years, when it reported that the EA provided a ‘professional and well-managed service’.