Ref No.: 13 26
Request Type: EIR
Date Received: 27/07/26
Date Responded: 18/08/26
Category: Economic Regulation - Scheme of Charges
Request
- Full price-list / charging changes applied for by Scottish Water (or otherwise formally proposed) that were denied, deferred, or postponed by WICS; and
- Full price-list / charging changes applied for that were approved or partially approved, where those decisions are not already published in machine-readable form on the WICS website.
I am content for this to be limited to a defined regulatory period (for example SRC21 and/or the current SRC27 preparatory work), and to be supplied electronically in whatever machine-readable format you already hold (CSV, Excel, structured extracts from decision papers, or equivalent).
Response
Many thanks for your request for information dated 27 July 2026 which asked for:
- Full price-list / charging changes applied for by Scottish Water (or otherwise formally proposed) that were denied, deferred, or postponed by WICS; and
- Full price-list / charging changes applied for that were approved or partially approved, where those decisions are not already published in machine-readable form on the WICS website.
We have handled your request as a request for environmental information under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EISRs). We have provided more information on the EISRs, how they apply and why we have applied the exemption in the Annex to this response.
Background: The Strategic Review of Charges process
It may be helpful for us to outline the process for setting water charges across Scotland.
The Water Industry Commission for Scotland was formed on 1 July 2005 under the Water Services etc. (Scotland) Act 2005. Our statutory duties are to:
- promote the interests of Scottish Water’s customers, having regard to the interests of current and future customers;
- ensure that customer charges reflect the lowest reasonable overall cost for Scottish Water to deliver the Scottish Ministers’ Objectives for the water sector;
- comment on Scottish Water’s reporting of its performance, challenging Scottish Water to become more efficient and sustainable; and
- facilitate the entry of retail water and sewerage providers that wish to supply non-household customers in Scotland.
We make sure that Scottish Water has the resources it needs to continue to provide high-quality water and sewerage services now and in the future. We do this by determining the level of revenue Scottish Water needs to collect through customer charges in order to deliver the objectives set for it by Scottish Ministers.
We have a duty to determine the ‘lowest reasonable overall cost’ that Scottish Water will have to incur to meet Ministers’ environmental, quality and service objectives for the industry. We do this every six years through a process called the ‘Strategic Review of Charges’, which results in WICS publishing a Final Determination of Charges for the regulatory period. Our decisions in the Final Determination must be consistent with the guidelines set by Ministers in their Principles of Charging.
Charging policy is set by Ministers through the Principles of Charging. The current Principles of Charging for the 2021-27 regulatory period is published on the Scottish Government’s website and available here.
The Principles of Charging cover the following five principles:
- Stable charges
- Full cost recovery
- Harmonised charges
- Cost reflective charges
- Fair, equitable and affordable charges
The third principle relates to harmonised charges, which requires that “charges should, for similar services provided to customers of a similar category, be the same for each customer in that category regardless of location in Scotland.” As such, in the materials we provide in response to your request, you will find no reference to customer charges that vary by location in Scotland.
The Scottish Government has recently consulted on its draft Principles of Charging for the 2027 to 2033 regulatory period. These align with the five principles above. Further information is available from the Scottish Government’s website at the links above.
Following our Final Determination, Scottish Water prepares an annual Scheme of Charges that must align with the requirements set out in the Final Determination. Provided Scottish Water’s charges scheme is consistent with these requirements, the Water Industry Commission would approve the Scheme of Charges.
Our response
We disclose the attached environmental information to you in response to your request. The attached information includes all formal letters submitted to WICS Commission Board from Scottish Water, in relation to the Scheme of Charges for SRC21. Under regulation 11(2) personal data has been redacted and therefore withheld.
Please note WICS has never denied, deferred or postponed any scheme of charges applied for by Scottish Water as Scottish Water’s Scheme of Charges submission has been consistent with the Final Determination set by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland.
Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the Environmental Information Scotland Regulations 2004, we are not required to comply where the information being requested is otherwise accessible to you, and in this instance, most of the relevant information is already publicly available. I have therefore provided specific links in the table below for ease of review.
Year |
Relevant information |
Link |
| 2022-23 |
|
2022-23 Part 1 wholesale charges scheme | WICS 2022-23 Part 2 wholesale charges scheme | WICS |
| 2023-24 |
2023-24 Part 1 wholesale charges scheme | WICS 2023-24 Part 2 wholesale charges scheme | WICS Microsoft Word - Part 3 Retail Charges Scheme 2023-24 - Non TC |
|
| 2024-25 |
2024-25 Part 1 wholesale charges scheme | WICS 2024-25 Part 2 wholesale charges scheme | WICS |
|
| 2025-26 |
2025-26 Part 1 wholesale charges scheme | WICS 2025-26 Part 2 wholesale charges scheme | WICS |
|
| 2026-27 |
2026-27 Part 1 wholesale charges scheme | WICS 2026-27 Part 2 wholesale charges scheme | WICS |
We have considered all charging changes submitted to, and considered by, our Commission Board within the SRC21 timeframe which covers the 2021-2027 period.
Should you consider information out with this defined scope to be relevant to your hypothesis, we would be happy to engage further and support any follow up information requests.
If you are unhappy with this response to your request, you may ask us to carry out a review by contacting us. Your request for review should explain why you are dissatisfied and should be made within 40 working days of receipt of this response. The review will be undertaken by staff not involved in the original process and we will reply within 20 working days of receipt.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC) and thereafter to the Court of Session on a point of law only. The SIC can be contacted using the details below:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road
St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Web: www.foi.scot