This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Plans to protect public water supply outlined
03/02/2003
Were they to form the next Administration, Scottish
Ministers intend to bring forward legislation to safeguard
public health, environment protection and social objectives
for Scotland's public water industry, it was announced
today.
Legislation will be a matter for the next Parliament,
but in responding to a Parliamentary Question, Minister for
Environment and Rural Development Ross Finnie made clear
that were the Executive to form the next Administration, it
would consult on a draft Water Services Bill.
The Bill would enshrine the Executive's longstanding
commitment to ensure that the possibility of competition in
the water industry would not erode the Executive's public
health, social and environment protection objectives for
the industry.
Mr Finnie said:
"The Scottish Executive is entirely clear that public
ownership of the water industry provides the best means of
safeguarding public health, the environment and general
access to high quality supplies.
"The draft Bill we are proposing is needed to address
the possibility of competition on the public water and
sewerage networks. It would protect public health and the
environment by prohibiting common carriage on the public
water and sewerage networks and ensuring that Scottish
Water alone was able to add treated drinking water to and
draw wastewater from the public networks.
"It would safeguard our social objectives by prohibiting
anyone other than Scottish Water from retailing water
services to households on the public networks. This would
mean that domestic water charges could continue to reflect
customers' ability to pay by retaining the link between
domestic charges and the banding and discount arrangements
of the Council Tax system.
"The Bill would also provide for business customers on
the public networks to benefit from the introduction of
choice in the provision of retail services, while ensuring
that they continue to pay a fair share of the costs of the
networks. This will be achieved by introducing a licensing
regime for third parties supplying non-domestic retail
services.
"These proposals strike the right balance between
environmental justice and increased competition. They will
enable competition to develop in carefully defined
circumstances, while ensuring that domestic water charges
continue to take account of ability to pay and that public
health and environment protection continue to be
safeguarded rigorously."
The Competition Act 1998 opens up the prospect of
competition on the public water and sewerage networks
operated by Scottish Water. The Executive's long standing
position is that the regulatory framework of the water
industry needs to be revised in light of this to protect
the Executive's public health, environmental and social
objectives.
Common Carriage is the process by which a third party
adds treated drinking water to the public mains, or draws
off wastewater from the public sewers for treatment. The
Executive's proposals would prohibit all forms of Common
Carriage and ensure that Scottish Water alone was able to
add water to or draw wastewater from the public networks.
This is in order to protect the public from the potential
health risks associated with multiple parties adding
drinking water to the networks.
Retail Services are services such as billing customers
and dealing with customer complaints and queries. They are
distinct from the physical delivery of services, dealing
instead with issues relating to information about and
payment for the service. In the interests of protecting
vulnerable groups from increased water and sewerage charges
the proposals will prohibit third parties from entering
into contractual arrangements for the supply of water and
sewerage retail services to households on the public
networks. However the proposals will allow third parties to
supply retail services to business customers on the public
networks.
A licensing regime will be established that will
regulate third parties wishing to supply retail services to
business customers on the public networks. The regime will
be run by the Water Industry Commissioner and will ensure
that business customers, while benefiting from a choice in
the provision of retail services, continue to pay a fair
share of the costs of the public network as a whole.
The intention, subject to the Executive forming the next
Administration, is that a draft Bill would be consulted on
in June 2003.