This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Water Services Bill
28/05/2003
WATER SERVICES (SCOTLAND) BILL
The Bill will establish a regulatory framework for public water and sewerage services that safeguards the Executive's public health, environment protection and social policy objectives as competition in the water industry develops.
The Bill will:
- Establish that Scottish Water alone is able to add drinking water to, and draw wastewater from, public water and sewerage networks (i.e. prohibits common carriage)
- Prohibit anyone other than Scottish Water from providing domestic customers with retail water and sewerage services
- Establish a licensing regime to control those providing retail water and sewerage services to non-domestic customers
Background
The Competition Act 1998 opens up the prospect of competition on the public water and sewerage networks that Scottish Water owns and operates.
This could take two forms:
- Common carriage - where a third party provides water and sewerage services to customers on the public networks by adding drinking water to Scottish Water's mains, or drawing wastewater from Scottish Water's sewers.
- Retail - where responsibility for delivering water and sewerage rests with Scottish Water, but where services such as meter reading, customer billing and handling customer complaints are provided by third parties.
The Bill will address both possibilities. The prohibition on common carriage ensures the continued protection of public health and the environment by establishing that Scottish Water alone can add drinking water to the public mains and draw wastewater from the public sewers.
Ministers' social policy objectives will be safeguarded by the prohibition on anyone other than Scottish Water retailing water and sewerage services to households served on the public networks. This means that domestic water charges could continue to reflect customers' broad ability to pay by retaining the link between domestic charges and the banding and discount arrangements of the Council tax system.
The licensing regime will regulate third parties supplying retail services to the non-domestic sector. It will allow business customers on the public networks to benefit from the development of choice in the provision of retail services, while ensuring that they continue to pay a fair share of the costs of the networks as a whole.