Member

Can you imagine what would happen if a casino had 1,100 convictions, or if a manufacturer of cars had 1,100 criminal convictions? Would they be allowed to remain in business? Ministers would be saying, “That should not be allowed”, but here water companies are treated as a special case. All my amendment asks is that criminals should not be allowed to control the water industry. What is wrong with that aspiration? If a water company has two or more criminal convictions in a five-year period, the amendment states that it should be placed under special administration orders. That outcome is very easy to avoid for water companies. They simply have to make sure that they do not engage in criminal activity, and then they do not have to suffer any consequences.