FOI request: Water complaints

Dear Sir / Madam,

Thanks for getting in touch with Scottish Water.
We have opened a new case CAS-2478343-C4H1Z in response to your email and
assigned it our FOI.
Should you need to follow up on this case, please contact us with
reference CAS-2478343-C4H1Z.
Thank you,

 FOI 
Scottish Water
Web - [1]www.scottishwater.co.uk

[2]twitter.com/scottish_water [3]Logo gap[4]facebook.com/scottishwater 

Scottish Water
Trusted to Serve Scotland

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Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not
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Water Solutions 2 Ltd ("SWS2") shall be understood as neither given nor
endorsed by them. The contents of Emails sent and received by SW, SWH, SWI
and SWS2 are monitored.

WARNING: Although SW, SWH, SWI and SWS2 have taken reasonable precautions
to ensure no viruses or other malicious software are present, SW, SWH, SWI
and SWS2 cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the use of this Email or attachments however caused. The recipient should
therefore check this Email and any attachments for the presence of viruses
or other malicious software.

Scottish Water

[5]www.scottishwater.co.uk

References

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Dear Naomi,
Water Complaints 2021-2023

Thank you for your email today that I have logged under the above
reference number. We will respond to your request in accordance with the
EIR's no later than 30 April 2024.
 
We will endeavour to get a response to you as soon as we can.

If you have any queries regarding your FOI request, please feel free to
contact me quoting the above reference number, and I will be happy to
assist.

Yours sincerely

Stacey Steele
FOI Officer

Customer Excellence Hub
The Bridge
Buchanan Gate Business Park A
Cumbernauld Road
Stepps
Glasgow
G33 6FB

L:  01414830808
Managed email Service: [1][email address]
Please note my working days are Tuesday-Friday

Scottish Water - Trusted to serve Scotland

Privileged/Confidential information may be contained in this Email and any
files transmitted with it. If you are not the intended recipient you
should not retain, copy or use this Email for any purpose or disclose all
or part of its contents to any person. If you have received this Email in
error please notify the sender immediately and delete this Email from your
system.

Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not
relate to the official business of Scottish Water ("SW"), Scottish Water
Horizons Ltd ("SWH"),Scottish Water International Ltd ("SWI") or Scottish
Water Solutions 2 Ltd ("SWS2") shall be understood as neither given nor
endorsed by them. The contents of Emails sent and received by SW, SWH, SWI
and SWS2 are monitored.

WARNING: Although SW, SWH, SWI and SWS2 have taken reasonable precautions
to ensure no viruses or other malicious software are present, SW, SWH, SWI
and SWS2 cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the use of this Email or attachments however caused. The recipient should
therefore check this Email and any attachments for the presence of viruses
or other malicious software.

Scottish Water

[2]www.scottishwater.co.uk

References

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2. http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/

Dear Naomi,
Water Complaints 2021-2023

Thank you for your request for information.  Scottish Water has determined
that this was a request for Environmental Information and therefore we are
required to deal with your request under the Environmental Information
(Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs).  We have applied the exemption
contained in section 39(2) of FOISA and will deal with your request for
environmental information under the EIRs alone. 

The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) sit
alongside Scotland's FOI Act and govern access to environmental
information held by Scottish public authorities. 

Your request for information was for the following:
1) How many water complaints did you receive in the years, 2021, 2022 and
2023?

2) What are the reasons for the complaints?
a. The quality of the water
b. The water pressure
c. Interruption to water supply
d. Unhappy with service
e. Water pipes
f. Costs
g. Damages
h. Other, please specify

3) How much have you had to pay out in connection with water complaints
during the years 2022, 2022 and 2023? In pounds (£).

In Response to Point 1
 

  2021 2022 2023 Combined
Total Complaints Recorded 119218 101748 97813 318779

In Response to Point 2
 

    2021 2022 2023 Combined
The quality of the water A 27125 17267 17185 61577
The water pressure B 16559 16560 15857 48976
Interruption to Water Supply C 40235 39222 34792 114249
Unhappy with service D N/A N/A N/A N/A
Water Pipes E 23598 23617 24804 72019
Costs F N/A N/A N/A N/A
Damages G 473 545 521 1539
Other H 11228 4537 4654 20419

Others 2021 2022 2023 Combined
Billing Dispute 0 1 0 1
Bogus Caller 1 0 0 1
Bottled Water 10663 4107 4163 18933
Capital Project 1 0 0 1
Choke / Blockage 1 1 0 2
Gap Site 0 2 0 2
General Enquiry 3 3 1 7
Hydrant 464 325 384 1173
Issue with SW Premise 0 1 1 2
Lead Renewal 0 2 0 2
Location Mains/Services/Sewers 1 0 0 1
New Conn. Inst-Water Part 1 0 0 1 1
Overflow running 82 89 94 265
Planned Main Shuts 1 0 0 1
Reinstatement 2 0 0 2
Shipping Water 1 0 1 2
Standpipe enquiry 0 1 0 1
Toby 1 0 3 4
Verification of Service 0 1 1 2
Water in Gas Pipe 5 3 5 13
Water Sampling 2 1 0 3

In Response to Point 3

Our Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) keeps track of every
interaction with Scottish Water. We update each case in our CRM system as
it goes on, with details of customer and Scottish Water communications
such as emails, phone calls, and site activities and work updates.
However, this does not cover Service Standard payments, so we can only
give values without categories.
 

  2021/2022 2022/2023 2023/2024
Service Standard Payments £73,767.85 £333,361.90 £81,990.24

Where we have advised above that Scottish Water does not hold any or the
full information requested it is excepted under Regulation 10(4)(a) of the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004. The text of which is
reproduced below;
(4) A Scottish public authority may refuse to make environmental
information available to the extent that;-
(a) it does not hold that information when an applicant's request is
received.
The exception in regulation 10(4)(a) is subject to the public interest
test in regulation 10(1)(b) of the EIRs.

What this means is that Scottish Water can only withhold the information
if the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public
interest in disclosure.

As Scottish Water does not hold the information in question there is no
public interest in requiring that the information be made available.

I appreciate this exception may appear odd, but this is essentially a
technical point as we are obliged under the legislation to carry out a
public interest test for this exception, but we cannot provide information
that we do not hold.

If you have any queries regarding your Freedom of Information request,
 please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to assist. You can do
this by contacting the following email address [email address].

You can seek a review of this response within forty working days and
thereafter appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner.

Further information on the appeals procedure can be obtained from the
attached document and the Commissioner's website at
[1]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal.

Yours sincerely

Margaret Hopkins
FOI Officer
Tel: 0141 483 0691
[2][email address]

Scottish Water - Trusted to Serve Scotland

The information disclosed to you is prepared for Scottish Water's internal
purposes only and in relation to Scottish Water's operational requirements
at the time of preparation of the disclosed information.  Scottish Water
accepts no responsibility or liability for any use of, or reliance upon,
the disclosed information, howsoever arising.  Scottish Water hereby gives
notice that the disclosed information, represents the opinion/ position/
forecast/ analysis/evaluations/projections/views/situation at a point in
time and the aforementioned
opinion/position/forecast/analysis/evaluations/projections/views/situation
may become outdated/inaccurate/incomplete within a short space of time
after the date of the disclosed information being compiled.  Apart from
compliance with intellectual property laws (dealt with below), any use of
the disclosed information is entirely at your own risk and no warranty is
given in relation to fitness for any particular purpose, accuracy or
completeness. 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO READ THE INFORMATION FOR
YOUR PERSONAL USE.  THE DISCLOSED INFORMATION MAY CONTAIN INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY RIGHTS, SUCH AS COPYRIGHT.  ACCORDINGLY, IF YOU WANT TO RE-USE
THE INFORMATION, YOU SHOULD ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE RELEVANT PERMISSIONS TO
DO SO FROM THE OWNERS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.

Privileged/Confidential information may be contained in this Email and any
files transmitted with it. If you are not the intended recipient you
should not retain, copy or use this Email for any purpose or disclose all
or part of its contents to any person. If you have received this Email in
error please notify the sender immediately and delete this Email from your
system.

Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not
relate to the official business of Scottish Water ("SW"), Scottish Water
Horizons Ltd ("SWH"),Scottish Water International Ltd ("SWI") or Scottish
Water Solutions 2 Ltd ("SWS2") shall be understood as neither given nor
endorsed by them. The contents of Emails sent and received by SW, SWH, SWI
and SWS2 are monitored.

WARNING: Although SW, SWH, SWI and SWS2 have taken reasonable precautions
to ensure no viruses or other malicious software are present, SW, SWH, SWI
and SWS2 cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the use of this Email or attachments however caused. The recipient should
therefore check this Email and any attachments for the presence of viruses
or other malicious software.

Scottish Water

[3]www.scottishwater.co.uk

References

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2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/