Scottish Water

Scottish Water supplies water and sewerage services to an area of 78,000 square kilometres - a third of the area of Britain. This includes almost 10,000 km of coastline.

Scottish Water was formed in April 2002 when three former water authorities, East, West and North of Scotland, merged. It employs 4,200 people across four operational areas - North West, North East, South West and South East.

Scottish Water is the sole water and waste water service provider to 2.2 million households, via 1,896 waste water works, 371 water treatment works, 46,000 km of water pipes and 39,000km of sewer pipes.

To be classed as wholesome, water must comply with the water quality standards set by Drinking Water Quality Regulator. In 2003, 307,000 tests were carried out on samples taken by Scottish Water. 99.44% of these tests complied with these standards.

Scottish Water operates a Code of Practice that sets out the levels of service domestic Scottish Water customers can expect, such as query response times. If Scottish Water fails to meet those levels then customers may be entitled to compensation.

Scottish Water is regulated in four ways:

• Scottish Water customer charges and levels of service - regulated by the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland
• Scottish Water drinking water - regulated by the Drinking Water Quality Regulator
• Scottish Water's performance in accordance with UK and European laws - regulated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency
• Scottish Water's compliance with the legal standards for health and safety in the workplace - regulated by the Health and Safety Executive