§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the costs of establishing the new Consumer Council for Water are yet known; if so, what they are, and how they will be apportioned to the water undertakers and suppliers. [HL2531]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)The regulatory impact assessment published alongside the draft Water Bill estimated that the set-up costs of the Consumer Council for Water would not exceed £1 million.
A study of the organisational and regional structure of the consumer council was later commissioned by my department and published on 7 April 2004. The council will take over from WaterVoice and the study envisaged transitional costs of £350,000. The actual costs will be overseen by an implementation steering group chaired by Defra.
52WAThe Water Act 2003 provides for these costs to be shared between water and sewerage undertakers. Ofwat will shortly be consulting undertakers about dividing costs according to company turnover, which is the basis already used for determining licence fees.