This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Scottish Water
12/04/2006
The appointment of Ronnie Mercer as interim Chair of Scottish Water following the resignation of Professor Alan Alexander in February was announced today .
Mr Mercer's appointment will run from April 18 to December 31 this year He holds no other public appointments.
His career started in 1960 as a chemist in the steel industry, progressing through British Steel to become one of its managing directors.
He moved to Scottish Power in 1994 as Generation Director. In 1998 he became Managing Director of Scottish Power's Southern Water subsidiary, after which he become a Group Director in the company.
Until his retirement from Scottish Power on March 31 he was Executive Vice President - Operations at Scottish Power's PacifiCorp subsidiary and an Executive Team Member of Scottish Power.
Deputy Environment Minister Rhona Brankin said:
"I congratulate Ronnie Mercer on his appointment. As interim Chair, he will lead Scottish Water as it starts to deliver the improvements in quality and standards that the Executive requires it to achieve over the next four years.
With over ten years experience in the utilities business, Mr Mercer has the skills to ensure that Scottish Water has a robust plan for delivering these improvements while charges to customers rise by less than the rate of inflation."
The post is part-time and attracts a remuneration of £500 a day for a time commitment of two days per week.
Scottish Water is a public corporation established in 2002 by the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002. It is accountable to Scottish Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament for the provision of public water and sewerage services across Scotland.
Ministerial public appointments are made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland's Code of Practice.
All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees' political activity (if there is any to be declared) to be made public. Mr Mercer has declared that he has undertaken no political activity during the past five years.
Background
On January 29 Scottish Water announced that it had accepted the Water Industry Commission's determination of water charges for 2006-10. This required it to deliver all Ministerial objectives for higher standards of customer service, drinking water quality and environmental compliance and for additional capacity to support new housing and economic development while charges rise by less than inflation across the four year period.
Scottish Water was required to produce a delivery plan that demonstrated how it would meet this challenge. The Executive concluded that the plan which Scottish Water submitted on February 1 did not do meet its requirements for the plan in full.
This judgement was supported by Scottish Water's regulators (SEPA, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator and the Commission). Consequently, the Executive required Scottish Water to produce a new plan that commanded the confidence of the Executive and the regulators. In light of that requirement, Scottish Water's Chair at the time, Professor Alan Alexander, resigned.
As interim Chair, Mr Mercer will be responsible for overseeing production of a satisfactory delivery plan. Among other things, the plan will set out how Scottish Water will deliver a capital investment programme costing £2.15 billion over four years - one of the largest ever programmes of investment in water ever undertaken in the UK.