HC Deb 27 February 1985 vol 74 cc171-2W
Mr. Richard Page

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what arrangements have been made to implement the Reservoirs Act 1975.

Mr. Gow

The Reservoirs Act 1975 is being implemented in stages. Under stage one, essential enabling regulations and regulations covering the appointment of new panels of engineers to carry out the various functions prescribed for qualified civil engineers under the Act came into force throughout England, Wales and Scotland on 8 November 1983, and 20 December 1984 respectively.

Under stage two, further regulations were made on 13 February bringing into effect on 1 April 1985 everywhere in England, Wales and Scotland, except in Greater London and English metropolitan counties those provisions in the 1975 Act:

  1. (i) transferring responsibility for reservoir safety from the district councils to the upper tier;
  2. (ii) providing for local authorities to set up registers of reservoirs; take action in the event of an emergency; make reports to the Secretary of State about steps taken to ensure compliance with the Act; and requiring reservoir undertakers to provide further information about and to carry out more regular monitoring of their reservoirs;
  3. (ii) providing for non-compliance with the Act to be a criminal offence.

Maximum allowable expenditure under section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972
1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Greater London Council 36,758.228 37,409.626 38,420.372 38,748.400 39,071.200 39,342.600
City of London 4,300.000 4,500.000 4,800.000 4,800.000 5,000.000 5,140.000
Inner London boroughs
Camden 2,080.000 2,100.000 2,120.000 2,160.000 2,220.000 2,246.000
Greenwich 710.000 710.000 1,109.668 978.922 995.100 1,027.996
Hackney 686.000 694.000 955.456 904.138 880.174 869.390
Hammersmith and Fulham 656.000 660.000 731.260 802.330 814.174 816.650
Islington 927.000 970.000 1,020.000 1,050.000 1,030.000 1,030.000
Kensington and Chelsea 1,340.000 1,350.000 1,378.344 1,380.000 1,380.000 1,400.000
Lambeth 1,110.000 1,100.000 1,243.576 1,228.508 1,210.330 1,171.928
Lewisham 840.000 840.000 1,210.706 1,125.054 1,120.726 1,078.922
Southwark 1,080.000 1,080.000 1,142.784 1,120.000 1,134.000 1,134.000
Tower Hamlets 818.000 840.000 1,014.166 976.340 952.412 904.000
Wandsworth 928.880 950.294 1,333.996 1,290.520 1,234.264 1,256.214
Westminster 5,940.000 6,140.000 6,220.000 6,200.000 6,180.000 6,220.000
Outer London boroughs
Barking and Dagenham 530.000 528.000 671.130 627.122 605.770 610.694
Barnet 1,154.000 1,154.000 1,175.592 1,196.000 1,207.540 1,200.000
Bexley 740.000 756.400 852.854 872.152 889.168 891.188

To enable local authorities to establish the local registers, reservoir undertakers are required to provide authorities by 1 January 1986 with information about their reservoirs. Local authorities must take steps to inform undertakers of this requirement by 1 July 1985.

The remaining provisions of the Act mainly relating to supervision of a reservoir operations by qualified civil engineers will be implemented later in the third and final stage. The date at present proposed is 1 April 1986.

Implementation in Greater London and English metropolitan counties will follow Parliament's decision on the future of local government in those areas. The Local Government Bill now before Parliament provides for the transfer to the London borough and metropolitan district councils of the functions which the Greater London council and metropolitan county councils would have assumed under the Reservoirs Act 1975. The intention is that the stage two provisions referred to above will be brought into effect in these areas on 1 April 1986 and the third stage provisions on 1 April 1987.

Those local authorities specified in the Reservoirs (Safety Provisions) Act 1930 can continue to use the powers available in the Act until it is repealed. The present intention is to repeal it in all areas except the metropolitan areas in England on 1 April 1986, and in those areas on 1 April 1987.