Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 23RD - 29TH MARCH 2018 | 13 Policy & Regulation on water companies' communications and whether household and business custom- ers felt they were given the information they needed, when they needed it during the sup- ply interruptions." He adds: "We know from the complaints we received that many customers felt they were not kept well informed and this created further confusion and frustration in some cases. But we also want to identify examples of good practice that can help other water companies refine their approach to handling water supply incidents in the future." Ofwat says it expects companies to learn from the review's findings and implement the recommendations, but they may have a few months to wait to see how they fare in Ofwat's critical examination, the conclusions of which it plans to publish by 15 June. Ofwat's review will cover: 1. Assessment. A thorough assessment of the issues or problems that arose, what caused them and their impact on customers. 2. Planning and preparation. Did compa- nies have advance knowledge or insight into problem areas in their networks that might be adversely impacted by the weather con- ditions experienced? What did companies do proactively in advance of the freeze/thaw to prepare themselves and customers and to mitigate risks? Were emergency plans in place and adequate to cope with the prob- lems and had lessons been learnt from previ- ous incidents? Were those emergency plans appropriately enacted? 3. Handling of incidents. What did com- panies do to deploy resources to deal with problems including distribution of bottled water, speed and effectiveness of repairs, management oversight and governance? 4. Communication and support. How well companies communicated with customers and stakeholders during the incidents and their identification of, and support for, vul- nerable customers. 5. Ongoing support. How customers are being looked aer now, particularly whether companies have proactively provided fair and speedy compensation. Update from Defra Following Ofwat's announcement of an investigation, Defra published an update on its website: "There was widespread coverage over the weekend of the launch of a review by Ofwat into last week's water outages across Eng- land and Wales following very cold weather. "Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey called for the review when she addressed the House of Commons last week. She made clear that she expected Ofwat to formally review the performance of water companies during the period and that government will 'act decisively to address any shortcomings exposed'. You can read her oral statement in the House, and see her response to questions from MPs in full on Hansard. "Ofwat's review will consider what caused the water supply issues across Eng- land and Wales, evaluate water companies' preparedness ahead of the recent period of cold weather and examine the quality of the support provided to customers. It will also look at the way customers communicated with household and business customers who were affected, and consider the adequacy of the compensation that companies are offer- ing affected customers." A Defra spokesperson said: "We will act decisively on any recommendations from Ofwat's review to ensure water companies work harder to minimise disruption to cus- tomers in the future. "As the government has previously stated, we will back Ofwat with whatever powers it needs for the water companies to up their game." The Beast from the East blanketed most parts of the UK in snow

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