Posted By Ian_P
Good day all,

I am after help / advice from the more environmentally minded ones of you, in a subject that is by no means my area of expertise.

We have had a recent visit by the Water Fittings Section of United Utilities. They conducted an inspection assessing us against the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999. As a result, they have left us with a list of corrective action and strict timescales for compliance.

Now........not that I disagree with the action that they have raised, (in fact some of it makes sense in a safety way - think legionella) but what I want to know is what enforcement powers have United Utilities and what role are they playing in these inspections?

I thought that enforcement of environmental law lay firmly with the Environment Agency. Are UU working on behalf of them or is this.. (here comes the cynical part)....a money making scheme to get us to employ UU to carry out remedial work, much of which is described as 'specialist' in the report.

Over to you my Green friends.

Ian

Posted By Robert K Lewis
The regulations are under the Water Industry Act 1991 and thus are not strictly environmental legislation although they have an environmental implication in part. The prime purpose is however health and safety - now there is a thought!!!

Bob :-)

Posted By Ian_P
Cheers for your responses folks,

We are going to undertake the reccomended action however I am still unclear over the enforcement powers of United Utilities.

Are they really an enforcing authority with prosecution & penalitive powers or is it a case of 'do this or we'll cut your supply off'

The cynisim in my post probably comes from the threat that they threaten to charge us "re-inspection fees" if action is not cleared within the given timescales.

Posted By Jay Joshi
Refer to:-

http://www.uk-legislatio...k/si/si1999/19991148.htm


http://www.defra.gov.uk/...ustry/wsregs99/index.htm


http://www.wras.co.uk/Regulations_Default.asp

Enforcement

The Government requires water suppliers to enforce the regulations.

Water Suppliers can provide copies of their Codes of Practice on Enforcement.

Wter suppliers will undertake inspections of new and existing installations to check that the regulations are being met.

Where breaches of the regulations are found, the water supplier will require them to be remedied as soon as practicable.

Where breaches pose a risk to health, the water supply to the premises may be disconnected immediately to protect the health of occupants or others fed from the same public supply.

It is a criminal offence to breach the regulations and offenders may face prosecution.