Consumer Scotland seeks water complaints transparency

(by Karma Loveday)

Consumer Scotland is seeking greater transparency in how customer complaints are reported in the Scottish water sector. It argued this would help drive further service improvements and boost accountability.

In a report, the statutory customer body noted that Scottish Water does not currently publish as detailed or accessible a breakdown of customer complaints as available in the English and Welsh water sector, or in the energy, communications and financial sectors. Meanwhile, while the Drinking Water Quality Regulator and the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman do report on complaints and investigations, these are either limited in scope or focus on only a small number of formal cases.

Consumer Scotland is engaging with the parties involved, and set out the following recommendations in its report for the Scottish Government, Scottish Water and the wider sector: 

• The Scottish Government should consider placing the publication of water complaints data in Scotland on a statutory footing. 

• Scottish Water should lead by example by voluntarily publishing more detailed complaints data on a quarterly and annual basis. 

• Scottish Water should improve the accessibility of complaints data through user-friendly formats and non-technical summaries. 

• Data sharing and collaboration should be enhanced between organisations such as the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator and the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman to support performance monitoring.

• Complaints data should be embedded into regulatory processes and service design to ensure it informs policy and operational decisions.