The Scottish retail non-household market
Scotland was the first country in the world to offer business customers the freedom to choose their licensed provider. Since April 2008, all businesses, public sector, charitable and not-for-profit organisations in Scotland have been presented with a range of licensed providers from which to choose.
This has provided customers with greater choice, access to tailored services and different value propositions. In the early years of the Scottish retail non-household market, licensed providers developed enhanced services to meet the expectations of their customers, for example by offering a more responsive customer service, new methods of payment, automatic meter readers and advice on how to improve water efficiency or reduce discharges.
The Code of Practice
We want to ensure that the Scottish retail non-household market continues to develop and deliver increasingly more benefits to customers, whilst ensuring that customers can make informed choices on the service offerings of licensed providers.
Consistent with this ambition and our duty to protect the interests of customers, we have now introduced a Code of Practice for the Scottish retail non-household market. The Code of Practice has been collaboratively developed by market participants including WICS, Scottish Water, Consumer Scotland, the Central Market Agency and licensed providers.
The Code of Practice will come into effect on 30 April 2025.
What does this mean?
The licensed providers in Scotland, who have signed up to the Code of Practice, promise their customers to deliver an enhanced service, beyond the minimum default service, by meeting or exceeding all the standards set out in the Code of Practice.
Those licensed providers shall work collaboratively with their customers (and with other licensed providers and Scottish Water) to ensure that the Scottish retail non-household market continues to deliver positive benefits to customers regardless of the location or size of their business.
Licensed providers signed up to the Code of Practice
How do I know whether licensed providers are honouring their commitments?
Ensuring that customers can have confidence in the service commitments of licensed providers is critical to support and retain the trust of customers in the Scottish retail non-household market.
We have therefore also introduced an innovative market-wide process, known as the Market Health Check. The main purpose of the Market Health Check is to build greater confidence amongst customers by determining whether licensed providers are upholding their commitments consistent the requirements outlined as part of the Code of Practice, including their compliance with the existing licence conditions. It also provides an opportunity for licensed providers to monitor their performance against their commitments and address any identified issues for the ultimate benefit of customers.
The first iteration of the Market Health Check is scheduled to conclude in March 2026.