Draft Water Services (Scotland) Bill
Consultation on Proposed Provisions
SECTION D: Questions on which responses are sought
WATER SERVICES (SCOTLAND) BILL - QUESTIONS
1: Prohibition on common carriage
Executive Policy: The Executive's policy is to safeguard public health and the environment by prohibiting common carriage on the public networks.
Question: Do the provisions at sections 1 to 4 of the draft Water Services (Scotland) Bill achieve the objective of prohibiting common carriage?
2: Prohibition on retail competition for households
Executive Policy: The Executive's policy is to safeguard social policy objectives by prohibiting competition in the provision of retail water and sewerage services to households.
Question: Do the provisions at sections 1(3), 3(3), 5 and 6 of the draft Water Services (Scotland) Bill achieve the objective of prohibiting retail competition for households?
3: Licensing the provision of retail water and sewerage services
Executive Policy: The Executive's policy is that the provision of retail water and sewerage services to non-household customers should be confined to retailers licensed by the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland.
Question: Do the provisions at sections 5, 7-13, 15 and the schedule of the draft Water Services (Scotland) Bill provide a reasonable basis for establishing and administering the proposed licensing regime?
4: Setting wholesale charges
Executive Policy: The Executive's policy is for the wholesale charges paid to Scottish Water by licensed retailers, including Scottish Water's retail arm, to meet Scottish Water's costs in providing the wholesale service on a consistent and proportionate basis.
Question: Do the provisions at section 14 of the draft Water Services (Scotland) Bill achieve the objective of ensuring that retailers contribute towards Scottish Water's wholesale costs on a consistent and proportionate basis?
5: Thresholds
Executive Policy: Transitional thresholds could play a useful role in managing the orderly development of a market in treatment services based on the use of common carriage. Given the Bill's prohibition on common carriage, the Executive does not propose making any provisions for a system of transitional thresholds as part of the licensing regime.
Question: Should the Bill include provisions for transitional thresholds, and if so how should they be set?
6: Arrangements for transferring information about retail customers
Executive Policy: The Executive expects a number of specialist firms to offer their services in the development of arrangements to enable information about customers to be transferred between retailers. The Executive considers these to be matters for retailers to agree among themselves and not a matter for legislation. However, the Commissioner, while having no statutory role in this respect, might be required to perform an informal role in assisting the development of satisfactory arrangements.
Question: Is it satisfactory to rely on non-statutory arrangements for transferring information about retail customers?
7: Licensing Scottish Water's retail activities
Executive Policy: The Executive wishes to ensure that Scottish Water's retail activities are not placed in an advantageous or disadvantageous position in relation to other retailers. It proposes therefore that Scottish Water should be required to establish a wholly owned retail subsidiary that will be subject to the licensing regime in the same manner as all other retailers.
Question. Will the requirement on Scottish Water to establish a retail subsidiary meet the objective that all retailers, including Scottish Water's retail arm, are treated equally for the purposes of the licensing regime?