The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee will continue its inquiry on the work of Ofwat by taking evidence from Ofwat’s CEO David Black, and Chair Iain Coucher from 10.30am on Tuesday 25 October:
The session can be followed live on Parliament TV or in person in Committee Room 2, Palace of Westminster.
Issues that will be covered in the session include:
- Whether Ofwat has the right statutory objectives to do its job and how it balances the tension between long-term investment and keeping costs to the consumer down.
- Whether Ofwat’s price reviews allow water companies to make adequate long-term plans and investments.
- Ofwat’s role in holding water companies to account for sewage discharge and if it has done enough to hold water companies to their statutory obligations.
- The appropriateness of water companies paying out large shareholder dividends and executive renumeration in light of their poor performance on environmental standards and water loss.
- Whether fines for breaches of environmental standards are seen by companies as a cost of doing business and whether Ofwat would support criminal sanctions for bosses of water companies who consistently fail in their environmental obligations.
- What Ofwat is doing to ensure the security of future water supply in light of climate change, and whether new reservoirs are needed.
