Scottish Water - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Scottish Water is a statutory corporation

Statutory Corporation

A statutory corporation or public body is a corporation created by statute. While artificial legal personality is almost always the result of statutory intervention, a statutory corporation does not include corporations owned by shareholders whose legal personality derives from being registered...

in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

that provides water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

and sewerage

Sanitary sewer

A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...

services. Unlike in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

and Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, water and sewerage provision in Scotland continues as a public corporation accountable to the public through the Scottish Government.

National policy is determined by the Scottish Government, to whom the authority reports. Scottish Water is bench marked against the performance of private water companies in England and Wales. It has over the last 4 years (2002–2006) delivered significant improvements in service and nearly £1 billion of operational and capital efficiencies. In 2006-2007 its average household charge was lower than in England and Wales (£287 compared with £294).

Scottish Water operates under a regulatory framework established by the Water Services etc. (Scotland) Act 2005 allowing an economic regulator, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, to set the cost of the service independently. The Water Industry Commission for Scotland establishes the "lowest overall reasonable cost" through a benchmarking exercise with private water companies operating in England and Wales. Scottish Water has a right of appeal against this price setting process through a reference to the UK Competition Commission

Competition Commission

The Competition Commission is a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom...

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency

Scottish Environment Protection Agency

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is Scotland’s environmental regulator. Its main role is to protect and improve Scotland's environment...

also regulate Scottish Water. Waterwatch Scotland represents the interest of Scottish Water's customers and has powers to investigate complaints

The authority was founded in 2002 by a merger of West of Scotland Water Authority, East of Scotland Water Authority and North of Scotland Water Authority under the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002, an Act of the Scottish Parliament.Scottish Water provides drinking water to 2.2 million households and 130,000 business customers in Scotland. Every day it supplies 2.3 billion litres of treated drinking water and takes away nearly one billion litres of waste water from customers' properties and treats it before returning it to the environment. It has an annual turnover of around £1bn and is funded by charges paid by its customers. Part of its long term capital expenditure is funded by long term loans from the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is considering merging British Waterways

British Waterways

British Waterways is a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom, serving as the navigation authority in England, Scotland and Wales for the vast majority of the canals as well as a number of rivers and docks...

Scotland with Scottish Water when British Waterways in England & Wales becomes an independent charity.

External links

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