Citation, commencement and interpretation

1. —(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Water Supply and Sewerage Licences (Cross-Border Applications) Regulations 2016 and come into force on 1st April 2016.

(2) In these Regulations—

“the 1991 Act” means the Water Industry Act 1991;

“the Commission” means the Water Industry Commission for Scotland.

Applications forwarded by the Commission

2. —(1) If the conditions in paragraph (2) are satisfied, the Authority( 2 ) must treat—

(a) a 2005 Act application( 3 ) for the grant of a water services licence under section 6 of the 2005 Act( 4 ) as being also an application under section 17F of the 1991 Act( 5 ) for the grant of a water supply licence giving only a retail authorisation or a restricted retail authorisation (or both);

(b) a 2005 Act application for the grant of a sewerage services licence under section 6 of the 2005 Act as being also an application under section 17F of the 1991 Act for the grant of a sewerage licence giving only a retail authorisation.

(2) The conditions are that—

(a) the applicant has requested that the Commission forwards a copy of the 2005 Act application to the Authority under paragraph 1B of Schedule 2 to the 2005 Act( 6 );

(b) the Commission has so forwarded a copy of the 2005 Act application to the Authority and the Authority has received that copy; and

(c) the 2005 Act application complies with the relevant provisions of a section 17F notice set out in paragraph (3) which relate to the application for the grant of (as the case may be)—

(i) a water supply licence giving a retail authorisation or a restricted retail authorisation (or both); or

(ii) a sewerage licence giving a retail authorisation.

(3) The relevant provisions referred to in paragraph (2)(c) are the provisions as to—

(a) the form and manner of the application,

(b) the information which must be included in the application,

(c) the documents which must accompany the application,

(d) the fee (if any) which must accompany the application.

(4) In this regulation, “section 17F notice” means a notice published by the Authority under section 17F(1C) of the 1991 Act.

Transitional provision

3. These Regulations do not apply to 2005 Act applications made to the Commission before 1st April 2016.

Review

4. —(1) The Secretary of State must—

(a) carry out reviews of these Regulations; and

(b) for each review, publish a report setting out the conclusions of the review.

(2) The reports must, in particular—

(a) set out the objectives to be achieved by these Regulations;

(b) assess the extent to which those objectives are achieved; and

(c) assess whether those objectives remain appropriate, and if so, the extent to which they could be achieved with a system that imposes less regulation.

(3) The first report must be published by 31st March 2021.

(4) Subsequent reports must be published at intervals not exceeding five years.