Other stories from last week

(by Karma Loveday)

Four former Southern Water staff, including its 2011-2016 chief executive Matthew Wright, appeared in court on Friday charged with conspiracy to defraud – a common law offence carrying a maximum ten-year prison term. It is alleged that between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2017 the individuals conspired to defraud the Environment Agency and Ofwat through the implementation of artificial no-flow events at wastewater treatment works to manipulate the operator self-monitoring compliance testing regime. All wrongdoing is denied.

Southern Water was separately charged with breaching environmental permits linked to the same conduct. Three further individuals also appeared in court to face charges linked to failure to comply with environmental permits. The case was referred to Maidstone Crown Court, for further proceedings in October. 

United Utilities has been fined £900,000 with costs of £62,225, after pleading guilty to five offences under Regulation 38(2) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 for breaches of environmental permit conditions. The Category 1 incident took place between 11 and 22 June 2023, and related to discharges from the Manchester Square, Anchorsholme and Chatsworth Avenue pumping stations, following the partial collapse of a final effluent pipe at Fleetwood Wastewater Treatment Works. This reduced the amount of sewage the site could receive and caused sewage to back up in the network and be discharged from the pumping stations along the Fylde coast after rain. The discharge lasted for 35 hours and led to the Environment Agency issuing ‘no bathing’ advice for eight bathing waters and to the temporary closure of three shellfish beds.

Dr Melvyn Weeks, associate professor in economics at the University of Cambridge, is running a workshop on 24 September on Regulation and the limits of automation. The workshop, held in partnership with Vision Consulting, will look at AI in water regulation. It will draw lessons from PR24 and the Competition and Market Authority’s use of machine learning algorithms in its redeterminations, and look ahead to potential AI-driven changes for PR29. 

For details and registration, see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/melvyn-weeks-a20b684_pr29-waterregulation-costmodelling-activity-7502769782027460609-Ayim?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAADiJbgBcY1Lf0JogYx2phylp46yy6KNqRg

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has called for infrastructure resilience and adaptation to be properly valued in investment decisions. In a policy paper, it called for government to commission a review of the economic value of climate adaptation and resilience “to address the systemic undervaluing of climate readiness in investment and regulatory decisions”. The review should adopt a whole-system, cross-sector approach and cover multiple timescales, to take account of interdependency. The ICE added that the review should evaluate the role of regulators in embedding climate adaptation into infrastructure decisions, including “how well regulators currently value and incentivise adaptation, what role they should play and whether they have the remit, tools and incentives to carry out this role”.

Anglian Water has established a new Major Projects Framework, with two delivery partnerships, to deliver the next phase of its £11bn AMP8 programme. Ferrovial Construction and MWH Treatment will form a joint venture on one contract, while VolkerFitzpatrick and VolkerStevin will take on the second. This new framework, worth up to £1.5bn, will complement Anglian Water’s established alliances and provide additional delivery capacity for major projects. 

MOSL has appointed Business Stream chief executive Jo Dow and Everflow’s chief financial officer James Cleave as retailer directors on its board. They replace Waterscan’s Neil Pendle and Water Plus’ Anita Adams, after both moved on from their roles. Both Dow and Cleave have experience of previous roles on the Panel, market committees and the MOSL board.

Ofwat is consulting until 8 October on a decision to approve Wholesale Retail Code change CPW162 concerning cyclic read skip codes. This proposal seeks to standardise and mandate the use of 15 regular cyclic read skip codes to improve market visibility and data accuracy. 

The background is that, despite the Retailer Wholesaler Group producing an advisory list of 49 skip codes, MOSL found 411 different codes in use – leading to inconsistency and hindering remedial action. As of January, 112,000 meters in the market had not been read for a year (8.83%) and 9,000 had not been read since the market opened. 

The 15 codes span four issue categories: meter, access, customer and safety. CPW162 also contains a requirement for trading parties to submit a skip code within 15 business days of the date that the regular cyclic read could not be taken. If progressed, the change will be implemented in May 2027.

The Microplastic Filters (Washing Machines) Bill had its Second Reading in the House of Lords on Friday. The legislation would require new washing machines, by 2030, to have filters to capture microfibres – a form of microplastic shed from synthetic clothing – before they enter wastewater. The Bill would also impose a duty on the secretary of state to promote the benefits of filters and raise awareness of the impacts of microfibre pollution.

Business Stream has backed a project to restore degraded and deforested land in Mexico under its third year of action with climate specialist Ecologi. Under the partnership, the water retailer offsets its carbon footprint through investment in global environmental initiatives, while working towards the goal of being net zero by 2030. This year, the focus is on reforesting land near the Laguna de Terminos nature reserve in southeast Mexico, home to the endangered Mexican jaguar as well as 300 bird species, 19 amphibian species and 88 mammal species.

Technology, media and critical infrastructure company Arqiva has unveiled a refreshed brand: ‘Built for what's critical’. The company said this marked its evolution from a broadcast distribution and critical communications infrastructure specialist, to also cover capabilities across managed media services, cloud and IP-enabled workflows, smart data services, connectivity solutions and emerging opportunities in critical national infrastructure.