Download or read book Ofwat written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-05-10 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) is the economic regulator of water services in England and Wales, with responsibility for setting price limits that allow the 22 main water companies to secure sustainable supplies at the lowest cost to the consumer. Following on from a NAO report (HCP 150, session 2006-07; ISBN 9780102944181) published in January 2007, the Committee's report finds that Ofwat needs to make changes to its regulatory system, in particular on water efficiency, data quality, and enforcement, given the increasing challenges to water supplies due to low rainfall and predictions of housing growth. Ofwat does not understand clearly how consumers use water and has not collected enough robust evidence on which water efficiency projects are most effective in helping consumers to use less water. Despite some progress, Ofwat still depends on unreliable data with regard to both supply and demand, and also needs much better data on per capita consumption. It has had some success in encouraging sustainable investment by companies, but needs to be more active in using sanctions against companies that under-perform against their commitments to meet all reasonable demands for water, while limiting environmental impacts. Ofwat should press companies to encourage more consumers to use meters by, for example, promoting the benefits of metering to consumers as well as routinely installing meters when there is a change of building occupancy.

Download or read book Ofwat meeting the demand for water written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-01-19 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) is the economic regulator of the supply and demand for water in England and Wales. Its broad purpose is to regulate in a way that enables companies to secure sustainable supplies at the lowest cost to the consumer. To achieve this it aims to collect relevant and reliable information to underpin its regulatory decisions, provide incentives for water companies to meet future demands and take appropriate enforcement action if companies do not respond to Ofwat's incentives. This NAO report finds that Ofwat has secured better data on the amount of water leaking from water companies' systems, but calculations of leakage still depend on estimates of consumption, and there is a lack of reliable evidence regarding the results of water efficiency projects that seek to help consumers waste less water. Recommendations include that Ofwat should: assess companies' progress on water efficiency on the basis of the quality of the project, its costs, and the water it saves, as well as the number of consumers reached; and build on its current approach and press for a long term and sustainable approach to leakage management.

Download or read book Ofwat price review 2009 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-24 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A report in which the Committee calls on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to review Ofwat's entire remit so that the regulatory regime will keep pace with the changes set to follow from greater competition and the challenge posed by scarcer water resources.

Download or read book Defra s Social and Environmental Guidance to Ofwat written by Great Britain: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second edition of Defra's social and environmental guidance to Ofwat. Its purpose is to provide Ofwat with a steer on the key environmental and social policies to which the Government expects it to contribute in carrying out its role as the independent economic regulator of the water industry. It should be read in conjunction with the Strategic policy statement [appended]. Ofwat is required to have regard to this Guidance when discharging its statutory functions. The Guidance covers Ofwat's work in relation to water and sewerage undertakers and licensed water suppliers who operate wholly or mainly in England

Download or read book The work of the Office of Fair Trading written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Trade and Industry Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-24 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee's report examines the work of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as part of a programme of short inquiries into the non-departmental public bodies associated with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (formerly the DTI). A NAO report (HCP 593, session 2005-06; ISBN 0102936161) published in November 2005 highlighted three key areas of concern about the OFT and its approach to its work, focusing on making best use of its resources; improving the management of investigations; and improving the measurement of its achievements and the communication of its work. The Committee commends the OFT for its positive response to address these concerns, and although it is too soon to make a balanced assessment of the results, they are encouraged by the evidence of progress so far. The report also examines issues relating to staffing constraints, the merger referral threshold, the OFT's role in voluntary industry codes of practice, and the OFT's Consumer Direct telephone service.

Download or read book The Crisis of Innovation in Water and Wastewater written by Duncan A. Thomas and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an extremely well-researched and documented book. The authors hypothesis is that the current water and wastewater sector is failing the populations of the western-world by clinging to orthodox and short-term visions of new technology and innovation, and also failing the developing nations by believing that delivery of western-world high-technology solutions is a contribution to humanitarian development. This is the crisis of innovation . To many practitioners in the water industry the book will be perceived to be hypercritical (of the incrementalism, conservative and dogged traditionalism ) of the sector, but in fact it is stimulating and positive. In the latter chapters an alternate more holistic model of water development is described. There needs to be a movement from large, central infrastructure resources to distributed systems that are more appropriate to local needs and can be coupled with environmentally sustainable energy sources and practices. Tim Lack, European Topic Centre on Water, UK Whilst acknowledging a massive leap from standpipe to universal water provision in 100 years in developed countries, the authors of this book see problems for global sustainable water supply and wastewater removal in the future. Using the UK water industry as an example, they describe the global water industry as risk averse and unwilling to innovate, a view that is encouraged by the institutional and financial regimes under which it works. The book explores the reasons for concern and sets out some hard-hitting views on how the water industry is failing to identify and tackle the essential problems in a world which is becoming ever more depleted of fresh water. The concluding chapter brings to a focus the problems of the crisis in innovation and gives some concrete suggestions for tackling them. This volume should raise the awareness of policymakers and regulators, technologists and concerned members of the public. Peter Chave, Independent Consultant and formerly Head of Pollution Control, National Rivers Authority, UK This significant new book highlights a little acknowledged but potentially catastrophic crisis of innovation in the global water sector, which institutions and industries are frighteningly ill-equipped to tackle or even accept. It suggests potential new technology and policy approaches to overcome both current and future problems. The book explores how technological innovation is vital to help provide sustainable water in both the UK and developing countries. However, innovation is being overlooked in the face of global trends to privatize and regulate water utilities. The authors highlight how the global water sector is failing to respond to increasingly complex world needs and continues to build largely unsustainable centralized infrastructures, opposing more appropriate, distributed and local modern technologies. The book also includes suggestions for potentially innovative technology and policy solutions to meet escalating global water and wastewater demands. Importantly, the authors adopt a long-term perspective that crosses both disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and include an international comparative perspective, covering a diverse range of examples and countries. This comprehensive book will have a broad appeal amongst researchers and academics with an interest in technology management, innovation studies, geography and development studies. It will also be a valuable asset for water regulators and governmental and non-governmental organisations working in this field.

Download or read book OECD Studies on Water Making Water Reform Happen in Mexico written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The report provides evidence-based assessment and policy recommendations in support of Mexico’s water reform. It analyses implementation bottlenecks and identifies good practices.

Download or read book Legal Frameworks for Transparency in Water Utilities Regulation written by Mohamad Mova Al'Afghani and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transparency in the regulation of water utilities is essential in order to ensure quality and fairness. This book explores and compares different regulatory arrangements in the water utilities sectors in three jurisdictions to determine which regulatory and ownership model is most transparent and why. The three jurisdictions considered are England (UK), Victoria (Australia) and Jakarta (Indonesia). Following an introduction to the importance of transparency in water utilities regulation, the book provides an overview of the three chosen jurisdictions and their legal and institutional frameworks. Through a comparison of these the author explores the contested and difficult terrain of "privatization", as (often) opposed to public ownership, in which it is shown that the relationships between transparency and ownership models are not as clear-cut as might be assumed. Chapters consider various aspects and outcomes of the regulatory process and the role of transparency, including topics such as regulators' internal governance mechanisms, utilities corporate governance, licensing and information flow, freedom of information and transparency in tariffs and pricing, as well as customer service. The book concludes with a summary of lessons learned to inform the refinement of transparency in utilities regulation.

Download or read book Future Flooding and Coastal Erosion Risks written by Colin R Thorne and published by Thomas Telford. This book was released on 2007-01-10 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Over 200 billion worth of assets are at risk around British rivers and coasts and those risks are likely to increase over the next 100 years due to changes in climate and in society." Sir David King, Government Chief Scientific Adviser This book presents a comprehensive insight into the flooding system, spanning multiple disciplines across different sectors of the flood and flood management professions. It forecasts the manner in which flooding and coastal erosion risks may increase during the 21st century due to climate change.

Download or read book Social Policies and Private Sector Participation in Water Supply written by N. Prasad and published by Springer. This book was released on 2008-04-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates that, when reforming the water sector, policymakers should arrange social policies that mitigate the negative impact of reforms. It presents a detailed analysis of the current issues, and uses country studies to show how social policies are vital in ensuring affordable access to water supply.

Download or read book Regulating Infrastructure written by José A. Gómez-Ibáñez and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2006-09-01 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1980s and '90s many countries turned to the private sector to provide infrastructure and utilities, such as gas, telephones, and highways--with the idea that market-based incentives would control costs and improve the quality of essential services. But subsequent debacles including the collapse of California's wholesale electricity market and the bankruptcy of Britain's largest railroad company have raised troubling questions about privatization. This book addresses one of the most vexing of these: how can government fairly and effectively regulate "natural monopolies"--those infrastructure and utility services whose technologies make competition impractical? Rather than sticking to economics, José Gómez-Ibáñez draws on history, politics, and a wealth of examples to provide a road map for various approaches to regulation. He makes a strong case for favoring market-oriented and contractual approaches--including private contracts between infrastructure providers and customers as well as concession contracts with the government acting as an intermediary--over those that grant government regulators substantial discretion. Contracts can provide stronger protection for infrastructure customers and suppliers--and greater opportunities to tailor services to their mutual advantage. In some cases, however, the requirements of the firms and their customers are too unpredictable for contracts to work, and alternative schemes may be needed.

Download or read book Frameworks for Water Law Reform written by Sarah Hendry and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-12-04 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is currently experiencing unprecedented global change, with population increase, urbanisation, climate change and environmental degradation combining to make management of freshwater resources a critical policy focus of the twenty-first century. This timely book designs and develops an original, analytical framework for water law reform processes, using case studies across four jurisdictions. Addressing the four principal areas of water law - integrated water resource management (IWRM) and river basin planning, water rights and allocation, water pollution and quality, and water services - this book provides a comprehensive study of water law, within the context of global and regional policy agendas. Case studies from England, Scotland, South Africa and Queensland, Australia, are presented, providing comparators from both common law and mixed jurisdictions, from the northern and southern hemispheres, and from developed and developing countries. A legislative framework is proposed for water law reform processes, and the consequences of different reform options are considered and investigated. A valuable resource for academics and graduate students in environmental law, resource management, hydrology and social science, this book is also highly relevant to policymakers, NGOs and legal practitioners.

Download or read book Courts Regulators and the Scrutiny of Economic Evidence written by Despoina Mantzari and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Courts, Regulators, and the Scrutiny of Economic Evidence presents the first systematic examination of economic regulation and the crucial role of economic evidence in regulatory authorities and courts. This book brings together strands of scholarship from law, economics, and political science to explore two key themes: the influence of economic evidence on the discretionary assessments of economic regulators, and the limits of judicial review of economic evidence, supplemented with comparative examination of both UK and US systems. In light of the challenges posed by economic evidence, Mantzari argues the appropriate scope of judicial review in the era of regulatory economics, and what the optimal institutional response to the pervasiveness of economic evidence in regulation should be. Building on comparative institutional analysis, this book rejects single-factor explanations, such as the individual knowledge of judges, in favour of a richer set of macro and micro-level factors that shape the relationships between courts and regulators. Mantzari argues that the 'recipe' for adjudicating economic evidence requires a balance in which a degree of epistemic diversity is introduced in courts, and deference is accorded to regulatory agencies on grounds of institutional competency. The book combines theoretical, doctrinal, comparative, and empirical analysis and it is written to be accessible to lawyers, economists, judges, regulators, policymakers, and political scientists.

Download or read book HC 505 Economic Regulation of the Water Sector written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) is an IT system designed to allow NHS organisations to extract data from all GP practice computer systems in England. This data would be used to monitor quality, plan and pay for health services and help medical research. The National Audit Office conducted an investigation into the service following concerns raised during a financial audit of the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). The investigation found that the project had been delayed and only one customer, NHS England, had so far received data from GPES. Mistakes in the original procurement and contract management contributed to losses of public funds, through asset write-offs and settlements with suppliers. However, the need for the service remains and further public expenditure is needed to improve GPES or replace it. This inquiry will examine the procurement and development of the GPES system, the total expected cost of the GPES programme, which increased from £14 million to £40 million during planning and procurement, and how the capability of GPES can be used to provide a suitable data extraction service in the future.

Download or read book UK economic regulators written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Lords: Select Committee on Regulators and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-13 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: UK economic Regulators : 1st report of session 2006-07, Vol. 2: Evidence

Download or read book International Handbook on Economic Regulation written by Michael A. Crew and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Crew and David Parker have compiled a comprehensive, up-to-date and detailed analytical work on leading research issues in the economics of regulation. With contributions from international specialists in economic regulation, the Handbook provides a comprehensive discussion of major developments in both the theory and practice of regulatory economics. This book will be an indispensable source for both students and practitioners of regulation. The Handbook begins by looking at the principles, history and methods of regulation before turning to specialist themes including: pricing and social welfare regulating service quality consumer representation performance benchmarking environmental regulation calculating the cost of capital information revelation and incentives the economics of access charging regulatory governance regulatory policy in developing countries particular issues in the regulation of the telecommunications, energy, transport and water sectors. The International Handbook on Economic Regulation is essential reading for researchers in the economics of regulation and students of regulation on final year undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses. As a major reference work, it is of value and assistance to economists in regulatory offices, regulated companies and government departments.

Download or read book National infrastructure plan 2011 written by Great Britain: H.M. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-11-29 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This National Infrastructure Plan sets out the strategy for meeting the infrastructure needs of the UK economy. There are three elements to this strategy. First, the Government will plan for the medium term and across sectors. The Plan brings together a comprehensive cross-sectoral analysis of the UK's infrastructure networks and sets out a clear pipeline of over 500 infrastructure projects. Delivering these projects will ensure that the overall performance of the UK's infrastructure is maintained and improved over time. Second, to mobilise the finance required to deliver these projects, the Plan sets out a new approach to coordinating public and private investment in UK infrastructure. Funded through further reductions in current spending, additional investment in infrastructure is being announced. The Government will act to facilitate the private investment that will finance the majority of the UK's infrastructure. This includes bringing in new investors into UK infrastructure; introducing new sources of revenue such as tolling; allowing local authorities more flexibility in the way they use local receipts to fund major infrastructure in specific circumstances; and being willing to consider guarantees against specific risks that the market cannot bear. Third, the Government will take an active role in ensuring the infrastructure in the Plan is delivered efficiently and on time, with priority given to those projects most critical for economic growth. The Government is also reforming the planning and consenting systems to tackle these sources of cost and delay in infrastructure delivery.