The EFRA Committee, which is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of Defra, has written separately to the Chair of Thames Water, Sir Adrian Montague, and to its CEO, Chris Weston, following the recent evidence session with the Thames bosses.
In his letter to Sir Adrian Montague, the EFRA Committee Chair Alistair Carmichael MP, on behalf of the Committee, addresses the matter that Sir Adrian “may have misspoken” and asks for clarification.
Alistair Carmichael says: “I note your assertion that in the heat of the moment you “may have misspoken”. I find the use of “may” in this context to be problematic. Only you can tell us whether you did misspeak or not. It then begs the question of what you mean by the term “misspoken”. Your clarification on that would be appreciated.”
A second letter, to the Thames CEO, Chris Weston, requests for further information on a number of matters raised in the evidence session, including bonuses, legal and advertising fees and data transparency.
Thames Water had initially proposed ‘retention incentives’ for its executives, rather than bonus payments, and said the payments were necessary to keep key staff during a critical restructuring phase.
In the letter, Alistair Carmichael says:
“The Committee remains concerned about a culture of paying bonuses despite poor company performance. During the evidence session, there was a discussion about bonuses for senior executives as part of new equity investment.
“On 21 May, the Secretary of State told the Committee that plans to pay out these retention bonuses have been dropped by Thames Water. However, a spokesperson for your company has said that the board has “paused” these payments.”
The Committee also wants a breakdown of money spent by Thames Water on advertisements and funding legal cases against Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate.
The EFRA Committee anticipates a response to both letters in the first week of June.
