Yes. Thank you for the opportunity to make some opening remarks.
First, I would like to put on record how much I am looking forward to working with the committee in my new role. I am keen to be as helpful as I can be to the committee in its work, and I am sure that I will be a regular visitor.
I have with me this morning Sue Petch, the deputy director of our drinking water quality division, who may help to answer some of the committee’s questions.
In Scotland, 97 per cent of the population receives water from public water supplies that are provided by Scottish Water. The other 3 per cent of the population receives its water from private water supplies, which are regulated under private water supply regulations.
As the committee is aware, Scottish Water is a statutory body that delivers drinking water to 2.4 million households throughout the country. Water that is provided by Scottish Water for the purposes of human consumption must meet the same quality standards regardless of the size of the supply or the location in Scotland.
The main purpose of the regulations is to ensure that the quality of Scotland’s drinking water continues to be of a high standard and satisfies the requirements of the European drinking water directive. In particular, the regulations aim to protect human health from the adverse effects of any contamination of water that is supplied by Scottish Water. They do so by setting out the requirements to be met and by detailing how those may be enforced so that consumers receive a supply of safe and clean drinking water.
The requirements of the European drinking water directive in relation to public water supplies in Scotland are currently implemented by the Water Supply (Water Quality) (Scotland) Regulations 2001 and various amendments to those regulations. I believe that it is time to replace the existing regulations with a new set of consolidated regulations to aid transparency and enable some revisions and new provisions to be introduced.
The new provisions include, first, a requirement to risk assess each treatment works and its connected supply. Although provision for risk assessment was not included previously, Scottish Water has been risk assessing its treatment works since 2006 as a requirement of the directions that Scottish ministers give it. That approach is promoted by the World Health Organization and has been embraced by many regulators throughout the world.
Secondly, the regulations include a new provision that requires Scottish Water to identify drinking water abstraction points and monitor the quality of water at those points. That aligns with the requirements of the European water framework directive.
The regulations also introduce new offences. It will be an offence for Scottish Water to supply drinking water that has not been disinfected and subjected to adequate treatment and to supply drinking water from a treatment works in contravention of the requirement of a notice.
The duty to treat water and to disinfect is included in the regulations with the specific aim of protecting public health. We believe that, given the gravity of that duty, it is appropriate that it should be an offence for Scottish Water to supply any water if it has failed to fulfil that duty.
In addition to those new requirements, we have included a number of minor changes. For example, the standard for taste and odour was a specific quantitative value in the previous regulations. It now mirrors the standard in the directive, which states that the taste or odour of the water must be “Acceptable to consumers” and that there must be “no abnormal change”.
A very high standard of drinking water quality is important for Scotland, in relation to the health of not only the people who live here but the large number of visitors who come here each year. It is therefore important that we continue to ensure that the standard of water in Scotland is the best that it can be.
I ask the committee to support the regulations, and I am happy to answer any questions.