Consideration of enforcement action is the first step in a legal process that is used by the Inspectorate to make improvements to water quality following a contravention of an enforceable part of the Regulations or other enforceable duty.

Enforcement action is considered in all cases where the contravention is regarded as nontrivial, unless the company can satisfy the Inspectorate that it has already taken suitable action to prevent the problem recurring, or the Inspectorate judges that the contravention is unlikely to recur. The Inspectorate generally considers a single breach of a wholesomeness standard to be trivial. When a standard is exceeded, account may be taken of the number of determinations carried out and the nature and extent of the breach before reaching a decision.

The process begins with the company being served with a ‘notice of intention to enforce’. The company then usually gives a legally binding undertaking to take appropriate steps to achieve compliance within an agreed timescale. Where a company fails to demonstrate that effective action has been taken, or fails either to give or to honour an undertaking, implementation of the full enforcement procedure is considered. This involves making a provisional or final enforcement order against the company. So far very few enforcement orders have been necessary.

If circumstances outside the company's control mean that an undertaking is no longer appropriate, it can offer a new undertaking. All undertakings and enforcement orders are announced through advertisements in local newspapers and details are freely available to anyone.

Assessment of the 2003 compliance data has resulted in the consideration of enforcement action against eight companies for 29 breaches of standards or other enforceable regulatory duties, as shown in Table 1 below. Undertakings have already been accepted from five companies.

Table 1. Consideration of enforcement action for non trivial breaches of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 1989 identified during 2003

During 2003, a number of companies reported breaches of the standards for nitrite and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Both standards have been revised under the new Regulations and the revised standards came into force at the end of 2003. No samples breached the new standard for nitrite and only three samples breached the new standard for PAH. Further enforcement action was therefore not considered to be appropriate.

Undertakings to improve water quality

A total of 64 Section 19 undertakings were in place at the beginning of 2003. These had been given by 20 companies. Thirtyfour of the undertakings, relating to ten companies were due for completion during the year and 33 were completed on schedule. The remaining undertaking, which had a completion date of 31 December 2003, was converted into an Authorised Departure under the new Regulations. Two undertakings for pesticides with completion dates after 31 December 2003 were also converted into Authorised Departures. However two undertakings for nitrate with completion dates after 31 December 2003 were completed by the end of the year and, therefore, did not need to be converted into Authorised Departures.

Fifteen companies had long term programmes of work to carry out improvements to their distribution systems. These programmes cover parameters such as iron, aluminium, manganese and turbidity, which are affected by the condition of the mains. More than 4,046 km of mains were renovated or replaced during 2003. The ongoing programmes of work require a further 19,633 km of mains to be renovated or replaced by 2010.

Six companies also had additional undertakings for iron in the distribution system. One was completed on schedule at the end of 2003, with most of the others being due for completion during 2004.

One company has ongoing undertakings for Cryptosporidiu m removal schemes. Eight schemes were completed during 2003, leaving three schemes to be completed in 2004.

During 2003 the Inspectorate accepted a total of 17 undertakings from nine companies for non trivial deficiencies identified in the 2002 compliance data or earlier, or as a result of an incident. Details are given in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Section 19 Undertakings accepted during 2003

Three of these undertakings were completed during 2003 and a fourth was converted into an Authorised Departure under the new Regulations.

During 2003, six companies also submitted a total of 12 new undertakings to replace previous undertakings which were either no longer appropriate or had been delayed due to reasons beyond the company’s control. Most of these new undertakings related to programmes of work being carried out on the distribution system.

Progress with all programmes of work is monitored, audited and reported by the Inspectorate annually.

Trends in enforcement action taken

Since 1990 enforcement action has been considered on almost 3,000 occasions. The programmes of work carried out under the resultant undertakings have resulted in year on year improvements in water quality. See ‘Overview of Water Quality in England and Wales’ in Part 1, which shows the reduction in breaches of the standards. The chart below shows the total number of enforcement actions considered each year since 1990. The reduction over the years in the number of areas where enforcement action has had to be considered demonstrates the effectiveness of the process. During 2003, one company contributed to nearly 60 per cent of the enforcement action considered.

The second chart, below, differentiates between the main areas of enforcement.