The Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) is the economic regulator of the water and sewerage industry in Scotland. Established in 2005, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government with statutory responsibilities. The Commission's board comprises a non-executive chairman and three two non-executive members. It is based in Stirling and is led by the Chief Executive, Alan Sutherland.

Activities

Price setting

The Water Industry Commission for Scotland has a statutory duty to promote the interests of customers by setting prices for water and sewerage services that deliver Scottish Ministers’ objectives for the

water industry The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services (including sewage treatment) to residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the economy. Typically public utilities operate water supply networks. The water industry doe ...

at the lowest reasonable overall cost. The objectives include improvements in water quality, environmental performance and customer service. The price setting process takes place every six years, with the current regulatory period covering the years 2015-2021.

Monitoring performance

The Commission monitors and reports on Scottish Water’s performance regarding customer service, investment, costs and leakage. The Commission sets challenging targets for Scottish Water to achieve and monitors performance to make sure that it responds positively to these challenges. The regulatory framework in Scotland has resulted in

Scottish Water Scottish Water is a statutory corporation that provides water and sewerage services across Scotland. It is accountable to the public through the Scottish Government. Operations Scottish Water provides drinking water to 2.46 million households ...

becoming significantly more efficient and has helped keep bills low – average household bills in 2015-16 are around £40 lower than they are in England and Wales.

Competition

The Commission is also responsible for facilitating competition in the Scottish

. In April 2008 Scotland became the first country in the world to open up water and sewerage services to competition for all non-household customers, under the Water Services etc. (Scotland) Act 2005. This means that all non-household customers (public sector, non-profit and business organisations) are able to choose who provides their services."Scotland on Tap"
/ref> The Commission is responsible for implementing the framework set out in the Act, including licensing all participants in the market. Since competition has been introduced there have been significant improvements for customers, with more options and better services.

References

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