Rivers and sewage

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

We don't have a locus over that. When it's undertakings in lieu of a fine, we are able to direct that investment to fix the problem that resulted in the enforcement, and also encourage companies to provide redress to customers.

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

…its costs to us for scrutiny. There are rules that mean that customers don't pay. And just to be clear, Dŵr Cymru offered us undertakings in lieu of a fine. It's probably fairer to call it a penalty. That's an important distinction, because if we fine a company, as we've done with one company in our…

Tagged for: “Dŵr Cymru”Official Record

Gareth BeerReform

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

And the second question is on the £44 million fine. You say it's not paid by customers, but the customers finance the company, don't they? So, how is the £40 million fine actually not paid for by the customers when the customers provide all the finance?

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

—or, indeed, it just becomes another layer of management. The recommendations in the Independent Water Commission report that the UK Government and the Welsh Government have committed to implementing has a taxonomy for how that sort of supervisory regulation works in practice, which is based on the…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

I think it's crucial that economic regulation stays independent of influence, so the right decisions are made. There is a danger, as we move towards something that looks closer to performance management, that we become too sympathetic to what we're being told—

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Gareth BeerReform

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

Thanks for coming down. Is Ofwat in danger—it might be a good thing or a bad thing—of actually running the management of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, as a sort of mission creep, if you like? I've got another question as well.

Tagged for: “Ofwat”, “Dŵr Cymru”, “Welsh Water”Official Record

Vikki HowellsLabour

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

Diolch. I've got Gareth and Andrew, and if there's time, we'll go back to John as well and hope to get all the questions in before we close at 10:30. Gareth.

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

Our experience is that turnaround of companies takes time. I think it's impossible to guarantee at the end of the second year that everything's fixed, but we are doing everything that we can to ensure that there is progress and improvement. You will know, from having spoken to the company itself…

Tagged from the title of its item or question: “Ofwat”Official Record

Niamh SalkeldPlaid

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

Thank you, Chair. So, this time next year, will we see Dŵr Cymru's figures improve from this new enforcement that you've put in place?

Tagged for: “Dŵr Cymru”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

…but also with Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, to ensure that it delivers on its promises. What's also the case is that we have set it stretching requirements on performance and put a financial regime in place to strongly…

Tagged for: “Dŵr Cymru”, “Welsh Water”, “water companies”Official Record

Niamh SalkeldPlaid

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

…then? Because obviously that's 2032, is it? Am I right in thinking that's the year that, obviously, Ofwat’s going to be—I don't know if ‘dismantled’ is the right word, but we've got the new regulator set up. Obviously, there are quite a few years until then, so from that report that highlighted all…

Tagged for: “Ofwat”Official Record

Chris Walters

30 September 2026, Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee

Ofwat’s role in the Welsh context - scene setting session

…in the final report of the Independent Water Commission—quite painfully, as I described it before—that Ofwat's part of a system that was too fragmented, and as an economic regulator, we were at too great an arm's length. So, going a long way back to 2012, there was a UK Government report on economic…

Tagged for: “Ofwat”, “Dŵr Cymru”Official Record