Dear Mr [last name of requester removed]

Thank you for your email below. This request will be handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Under the FOIA Ofwat has 20 working days to respond to your request. The deadline is therefore 22 May 2012. I will contact you again on or before this date to inform you of progress.

You can read about Ofwat' s duties under the FOIA on our website using the link below.

http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/aboutofwat/foi/

Yours sincerely

Gemma Thomas
Correspondence Officer
Ofwat

Tel: 0121 644 7644
Fax: 0121 644 7546
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/Ofwat

Ofwat.gov.uk
Address: Centre City Tower, 7 Hill Street, Birmingham, B5 4UA

Disclaimer:
'Every reasonable effort is made to make the information and any commentary on the law contained in this e-mail accurate and up to date, but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by the sender or Ofwat. The information and commentary does not, and is not intended to, amount to legal advice to any person on a specific case or matter. You are strongly advised to obtain specific, personal advice from a lawyer or other appropriate adviser about your case or matter and not to rely on the information or comments in this e-mail.'

show quoted sections

Dear Mr [last name of requester removed]

Ofwat have finished searching for the information you requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). For ease of response I have incorporated your questions into our response.

1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11) Annual household charges, leakage rates, number of disconnections, water meter installations, number of prosecutions and fines and profit or loss one year before privatisation.
Ofwat was established at privatisation. We therefore hold only very limited information in relation to the pre-privatisation period. I have attached a copy of the privatisation prospectus in relation to Severn Trent Water that contains some information in relation to its business and financial performance before privatisation. We do not hold any other information covered by these questions.

2) Annual household charges since privatisation to 2012.

As you can appreciate charges for particular households depend on many factors. I therefore attach a spread sheet showing the average household bills for Severn Trent Water since privatisation in both real terms (i.e. adjusted for inflation to make them directly comparable) and nominal terms (without any adjustment for inflation).

You may also be interested to know that we have published information on water company charges and their charges schemes on our website from 2008. I have provided below a link to this page.
http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulating/charges

The charges schemes for 2011-12 and 2012-13 have not been published by Ofwat as we are no longer compiling the information. However the information is freely available on Severn Trent’s website. I have provided below a link to the information.
http://www.stwater.co.uk/category/423

The individual rates for household charges from 1989-2000 are found in annex C and annex D of the document below.
http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/legacy/aptrix/of...

Our charges reports from 1998/99 to 2007/08 are on our legacy website.
http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/legacy/aptrix/of...

4) Annual leakage rates since privatisation to 2012.
I have attached a spread sheet for the rate of leakage since 1990. Although leakage targets were only created in 1997 we still hold records of the rate of leakage before that time.

6. Annual number of disconnections since privatisation to 2012.
We have published our ‘Debt and Disconnection Figures 2006-07’ report on our website. Please note that this publication only contains figures from after the ban on domestic disconnections for non-payment of charges was introduced in 1999. I have provided below a link to the above mentioned document.
http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulating/custo...

Since this publication we have ceased to collect disconnection figures.

In November 2009 we provided a response to a Parliamentary Question (PQ) with regard to disconnection figures between 1989-90 and 2007-08. I have provided below a link to that PQ.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=...

In order to get a more definitive answer to this question I would advise that you contact Severn Trent Water and request the information from them (although please note that water companies are not currently covered by FOIA).

8. Annual number of water meter installations since privatisation to 2012.
I have provided on the attached spread sheet the figures we have for the number of meters installed since privatisation.

10. Annual number of prosecutions and fines since privatisation.
Ofwat is not a prosecuting authority. If you are interested in action that we have taken against water companies using our civil enforcement powers in the Water Industry Act 1991 then information on individual cases is available on our website at http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulating/enfor...

If you are interested in criminal prosecutions of water companies for discharges into the environment or water quality failures then please note that these are the responsibility of the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate respectively.

12. Annual company profit or loss since privatisation to 2012.
Severn Trent Water’s statutory accounts are publically available at Companies House. The link to its website is http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/

The company profits are published on our website in the June return. The June return was a collection of data submitted to us by the water companies, collated and published by ourselves. I have provided below a link to the website which provides the information required back to 2003.
http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulating/juner...

We are no longer publishing the June return therefore any information in the future will be published on Severn Trent Water’s website as part of their regulatory accounts.

Where information is already in the public domain we have (if it is not in the attached information) provided appropriate links. Such information that is already reasonably accessible to you by other means is formally exempt from disclosure under section 21 of FOIA.
If you have any queries with regard to the content of this e-mail please do contact me.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of my decision please write to me at the address below.

If you are not content with the outcome of that review you may apply directly to the information commissioner for a decision. Generally the Information Commission cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the Ofwat complaints procedure. The information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Thomas
Correspondence Officer
Ofwat

Tel: 0121 644 7644
Fax: 0121 644 7546
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/Ofwat

Ofwat.gov.uk
Address: Centre City Tower, 7 Hill Street, Birmingham, B5 4UA

Disclaimer:
'Every reasonable effort is made to make the information and any commentary on the law contained in this e-mail accurate and up to date, but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by the sender or Ofwat. The information and commentary does not, and is not intended to, amount to legal advice to any person on a specific case or matter. You are strongly advised to obtain specific, personal advice from a lawyer or other appropriate adviser about your case or matter and not to rely on the information or comments in this e-mail.'

show quoted sections