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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?
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