Member

To respond to the noble Lord, Lord Remnant, in practice Ofwat has proposed a flexible approach for water companies in allowing them to establish appropriate arrangements for involving customers in decision-making processes. This is designed to enable each company to choose the arrangements best suited to them and their customers from a range of options that will be set out by Ofwat in the rules. The proposed options put forward by Ofwat include water companies specifying that a non-executive director on the board participates in or observes a relevant consumer panel or is responsible for oversight of consumer interests at the board. Alternatively, water companies could make provision for consumer panel representatives to meet the CEO on a regular basis.