Asbestos in water pipe distribution network - inquiry

Reference Number: EIR 637

Dear Katharine Quarmby,

The Yorkshire Water Services Ltd Data Protection Team acknowledges your
request on 14 July 2023 regarding information about asbestos in water pipe
distribution network.

We will respond to your request for information in compliance with the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

The Regulations allow us 20 working days to respond to a request from the
date of its receipt.  However, occasionally it is necessary to extend the
20-working-day time limit for issuing a response if the complexity and
volume of the information makes it impractical for us to respond within
the original deadline.  If this is the case we will notify you of this
delay.

You will be informed in advance if there is a charge for supplying copies
of the information. We will also provide you with an explanation if we are
unable to disclose and respond to your request.  If the requested
information contains references to any third parties, we may need to
consult with them before deciding whether to release the information.

Should you have any queries regarding your request, please feel free to
contact us quoting reference EIR 637.

Yours sincerely,

Data Protection Team

Email: [1][email address]

Want to know a bit more about Yorkshire Water? Our website is full of
useful info, from how to apply for a water meter to planning your next
walk at one of our beautiful reservoirs - it’s all at yorkshirewater.com

Need to talk to us? For the best way to get in touch with us, go to
yorkshirewater.com/contact

Now the legal stuff! The information and any files sent as part of this
email are confidential, possibly legally privileged and for the
addressee’s attention only. If you’ve wrongly received this email, please
reply to it to let the sender know and delete it from your computer. Just
to confirm, this email isn’t a binding offer, acceptance, amendment,
waiver or any agreement or obligation – unless this is clearly stated in
the email.

We need to let you know that the content is subject to the legal notice at
yorkshirewater.com/about-us/our-policies/privacy-policy. Any disclosure,
copying, distribution or action taken based on its contents, is prohibited
and may be unlawful.

Yorkshire Water Services Limited
Registered Office Western House, Halifax Road, Bradford, BD6 2SZ
Registered in England and Wales No 2366682

References

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1. mailto:[Yorkshire Water request email]

Reference Number: EIR 637

Dear Katharine Quarmby,

I refer to your request for information submitted to Yorkshire Water dated
14 July 2023

Please find the data which you have requested. 

 1. Please supply me with the percentage of asbestos cement pipes (ACM) in
your water company distribution network, also expressing the figures
in kilometres. 

Asbestos cement mains make up 6% of the total asset base in 2022.  In
total (in 2022) we have approximately 2019.6km of asbestos cement mains.

 2. Also the dates of when the ACM pipes were installed in your network to
the nearest five years, where the information is available.

See attached

 3. How many of those ACM pipes have failed from 2017-2021 and a brief
description of the incident (s).

I trust that the provision of this data satisfies your request.  In
accordance with the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, if you are
not satisfied with this reply to your request you can ask for an internal
review.  A request for an internal review must be submitted within 40
working days by contacting the Data Protection Team.

Thank you for contacting Yorkshire Water.

Yours sincerely,

Data Protection Team

Email: [1][email address]

Want to know a bit more about Yorkshire Water? Our website is full of
useful info, from how to apply for a water meter to planning your next
walk at one of our beautiful reservoirs - it’s all at yorkshirewater.com

Need to talk to us? For the best way to get in touch with us, go to
yorkshirewater.com/contact

Now the legal stuff! The information and any files sent as part of this
email are confidential, possibly legally privileged and for the
addressee’s attention only. If you’ve wrongly received this email, please
reply to it to let the sender know and delete it from your computer. Just
to confirm, this email isn’t a binding offer, acceptance, amendment,
waiver or any agreement or obligation – unless this is clearly stated in
the email.

We need to let you know that the content is subject to the legal notice at
yorkshirewater.com/about-us/our-policies/privacy-policy. Any disclosure,
copying, distribution or action taken based on its contents, is prohibited
and may be unlawful.

Yorkshire Water Services Limited
Registered Office Western House, Halifax Road, Bradford, BD6 2SZ
Registered in England and Wales No 2366682

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Yorkshire Water request email]

Reference Number: EIR 703

Dear Ms Katharine Quarmby,

The Yorkshire Water Services Ltd Data Protection Team acknowledges your
request on 10 November 2023 for an internal review of your case EIR 637.

We will action and respond to your request within 40 working days in
compliance with the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Should you have any queries regarding your request, please feel free to
contact us quoting reference EIR 703

Yours sincerely,

Data Protection Team

Email: [1][email address]

Want to know a bit more about Yorkshire Water? Our website is full of
useful info, from how to apply for a water meter to planning your next
walk at one of our beautiful reservoirs - it’s all at yorkshirewater.com

Need to talk to us? For the best way to get in touch with us, go to
yorkshirewater.com/contact

Now the legal stuff! The information and any files sent as part of this
email are confidential, possibly legally privileged and for the
addressee’s attention only. If you’ve wrongly received this email, please
reply to it to let the sender know and delete it from your computer. Just
to confirm, this email isn’t a binding offer, acceptance, amendment,
waiver or any agreement or obligation – unless this is clearly stated in
the email.

We need to let you know that the content is subject to the legal notice at
yorkshirewater.com/about-us/our-policies/privacy-policy. Any disclosure,
copying, distribution or action taken based on its contents, is prohibited
and may be unlawful.

Yorkshire Water Services Limited
Registered Office Western House, Halifax Road, Bradford, BD6 2SZ
Registered in England and Wales No 2366682

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Yorkshire Water request email]

Reference Number: EIR 703

Dear Katharine Quarmby

I refer to your request for an internal review of EIR 637, submitted to
Yorkshire Water on the 10 November 2023. We have recorded this as EIR 703.

Please find attached the data which you have requested.  Included with
this email are our response to your questions:

 2. Also the dates of when the ACM pipes were installed in your network to
the nearest five years, where the information is available.

In response to question 2, please accept our apologies there appears to
have been a filter on this for the year 1899. Reattached is a spreadsheet
showing all the data and having re-reviewed it the length is 2099km. The
spreadsheet is July 2023 AC mains.

 3. How many of those ACM pipes have failed from 2017-2021 and a brief
description of the incident (s).

The attached spreadsheets (main repair data 2016-20 and 2020-23) provides
a bit more granular data on the type of AC main failures.  We do not have
the data for every type of AC mains failure within this period as it is
not a mandatory field for a service partner to fill in when feeding back
the details of the job, we have provided to you the information that we do
hold. In addition to this, it must be noted that when this form is being
completed there will be various factors experienced by the colleague
completing the form, such as the weather / timing of the job (out of
hours) etc.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review you have
the right of appeal to the Information Commissioner who can be contacted
at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113

Web: [1]http://www.ico.org.uk

Thank you for contacting Yorkshire Water.

Yours sincerely,

Data Protection Team

Email: [2][email address]

Want to know a bit more about Yorkshire Water? Our website is full of
useful info, from how to apply for a water meter to planning your next
walk at one of our beautiful reservoirs - it’s all at yorkshirewater.com

Need to talk to us? For the best way to get in touch with us, go to
yorkshirewater.com/contact

Now the legal stuff! The information and any files sent as part of this
email are confidential, possibly legally privileged and for the
addressee’s attention only. If you’ve wrongly received this email, please
reply to it to let the sender know and delete it from your computer. Just
to confirm, this email isn’t a binding offer, acceptance, amendment,
waiver or any agreement or obligation – unless this is clearly stated in
the email.

We need to let you know that the content is subject to the legal notice at
yorkshirewater.com/about-us/our-policies/privacy-policy. Any disclosure,
copying, distribution or action taken based on its contents, is prohibited
and may be unlawful.

Yorkshire Water Services Limited
Registered Office Western House, Halifax Road, Bradford, BD6 2SZ
Registered in England and Wales No 2366682

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.org.uk/
2. mailto:[Yorkshire Water request email]

Good afternoon,

We can confirm receipt of your email on the 2 January 2023 and have referred this our colleagues to review.

We will endeavour to provide a response as soon as we are able.

Kind regards
Data Protection Team

show quoted sections

Dear Katharine Quarmby

Thank you for your email on the 2 January and your patience whilst we
referred this to the appropriate business unit for a response. 

They have re-ran the report and there were some data points where errors
have been identified, these have a comment in column H. you will note that
we have added a comment explaining that the mains repair has resulted in a
section of main being ‘cut out’ and replaced with a section of plastic
pipe. This material type will be an error and has been reviewed
internally. Please find attached a revised spreadsheet, please accept our
apologies, we have not provided the data in decade bands as we do not hold
it in this format. 

The section below describes why the ‘Date Laid’ section can often be
unclear and misleading. We have manually altered anything that has an
estimated ‘Date Laid’ within the 1800’s to just say ‘Pre 1900’. 

Date Laid Explanation

The table below is calculated from every single material type, but it
demonstrates that a small number of years have been assigned to a large
percentage of assets. The twelve years listed in the table each cover at
least 2% of all assets, with 20% of all assets set to 1955. These twelve
years combined cover 63% of all assets. The more recent years may be
accurate, reflecting recent pipe laying or replacement programmes, but it
is likely that earlier years contain a high level of infilled values.

Table 17: Assets Date Laid: most common values

Total Length
Year Laid (km) % Assets by Length
1890 1136 3%
1900 1091 3%
1920 728 2%
1935 2419 7%
1940 1719 5%
1950 3112 9%
1955 7237 20%
1970 1795 5%
1977 1239 3%
1990 765 2%
1993 672 2%
1995 578 2%

The Date Laid information contains two associated fields which relate to
the quality of the data. The DATELAIDMETHOD field indicates whether the
value is Actual, Default, or Software generated. The DATELAIDPRECISION
field gives a value between 1 and 50. Values for 38% of assets are set to
‘Actual’ and ‘1’ indicating that the value has come from a known source
specific to the asset and is believed to be accurate to within a year.
This is the highest quality data. The next two largest groups are set to
‘Software’/ ‘25’ and ‘Software’/ ‘50’, covering a further 38% of assets.
This data has come from an age profiling project, using either epoch
mapping or the asset material to set the date laid.  

As many of the mains were laid prior to the invention of computerised
systems, many of the data laid values will be ‘Software’ or ‘Default’
generated.  In essence this means they will have been estimated with a
level of intelligence e.g. related to the date of property builds.  The
‘Software’ or ‘Default’ categories have error bands around them, up to 20
years either side of the date quoted. 

Yours sincerely,

Data Protection Team

Want to know a bit more about Yorkshire Water? Our website is full of
useful info, from how to apply for a water meter to planning your next
walk at one of our beautiful reservoirs - it’s all at yorkshirewater.com

Need to talk to us? For the best way to get in touch with us, go to
yorkshirewater.com/contact

Now the legal stuff! The information and any files sent as part of this
email are confidential, possibly legally privileged and for the
addressee’s attention only. If you’ve wrongly received this email, please
reply to it to let the sender know and delete it from your computer. Just
to confirm, this email isn’t a binding offer, acceptance, amendment,
waiver or any agreement or obligation – unless this is clearly stated in
the email.

We need to let you know that the content is subject to the legal notice at
yorkshirewater.com/about-us/our-policies/privacy-policy. Any disclosure,
copying, distribution or action taken based on its contents, is prohibited
and may be unlawful.

Yorkshire Water Services Limited
Registered Office Western House, Halifax Road, Bradford, BD6 2SZ
Registered in England and Wales No 2366682

Dear Katharine Quarmby

Following our response on the 24 January 2023, a review of our spreadsheet
confirmed that the comments in H were against the wrong rows.

We attached a revised version of this spreadsheet with the comments
against the correct rows, please accept our apologies.

Yours sincerely,

Data Protection Team

From: EIR Compliance
Sent: 24 January 2024 09:59
To: Ms Katharine Quarmby <[FOI #1003889 email]>
Subject: 20240124 - EIR 703 - Internal review further response

Dear Katharine Quarmby

Thank you for your email on the 2 January and your patience whilst we
referred this to the appropriate business unit for a response. 

They have re-ran the report and there were some data points where errors
have been identified, these have a comment in column H. you will note that
we have added a comment explaining that the mains repair has resulted in a
section of main being ‘cut out’ and replaced with a section of plastic
pipe. This material type will be an error and has been reviewed
internally. Please find attached a revised spreadsheet, please accept our
apologies, we have not provided the data in decade bands as we do not hold
it in this format. 

The section below describes why the ‘Date Laid’ section can often be
unclear and misleading. We have manually altered anything that has an
estimated ‘Date Laid’ within the 1800’s to just say ‘Pre 1900’. 

Date Laid Explanation

The table below is calculated from every single material type, but it
demonstrates that a small number of years have been assigned to a large
percentage of assets. The twelve years listed in the table each cover at
least 2% of all assets, with 20% of all assets set to 1955. These twelve
years combined cover 63% of all assets. The more recent years may be
accurate, reflecting recent pipe laying or replacement programmes, but it
is likely that earlier years contain a high level of infilled values.

Table 17: Assets Date Laid: most common values

Total Length
Year Laid (km) % Assets by Length
1890 1136 3%
1900 1091 3%
1920 728 2%
1935 2419 7%
1940 1719 5%
1950 3112 9%
1955 7237 20%
1970 1795 5%
1977 1239 3%
1990 765 2%
1993 672 2%
1995 578 2%

The Date Laid information contains two associated fields which relate to
the quality of the data. The DATELAIDMETHOD field indicates whether the
value is Actual, Default, or Software generated. The DATELAIDPRECISION
field gives a value between 1 and 50. Values for 38% of assets are set to
‘Actual’ and ‘1’ indicating that the value has come from a known source
specific to the asset and is believed to be accurate to within a year.
This is the highest quality data. The next two largest groups are set to
‘Software’/ ‘25’ and ‘Software’/ ‘50’, covering a further 38% of assets.
This data has come from an age profiling project, using either epoch
mapping or the asset material to set the date laid.  

As many of the mains were laid prior to the invention of computerised
systems, many of the data laid values will be ‘Software’ or ‘Default’
generated.  In essence this means they will have been estimated with a
level of intelligence e.g. related to the date of property builds.  The
‘Software’ or ‘Default’ categories have error bands around them, up to 20
years either side of the date quoted. 

Yours sincerely,

Data Protection Team

Want to know a bit more about Yorkshire Water? Our website is full of
useful info, from how to apply for a water meter to planning your next
walk at one of our beautiful reservoirs - it’s all at yorkshirewater.com

Need to talk to us? For the best way to get in touch with us, go to
yorkshirewater.com/contact

Now the legal stuff! The information and any files sent as part of this
email are confidential, possibly legally privileged and for the
addressee’s attention only. If you’ve wrongly received this email, please
reply to it to let the sender know and delete it from your computer. Just
to confirm, this email isn’t a binding offer, acceptance, amendment,
waiver or any agreement or obligation – unless this is clearly stated in
the email.

We need to let you know that the content is subject to the legal notice at
yorkshirewater.com/about-us/our-policies/privacy-policy. Any disclosure,
copying, distribution or action taken based on its contents, is prohibited
and may be unlawful.

Yorkshire Water Services Limited
Registered Office Western House, Halifax Road, Bradford, BD6 2SZ
Registered in England and Wales No 2366682