These Regulations set out the steps that a statutory water undertaker must follow with respect to the publication and consultation of a draft water resources management plan, and specify further details about how water companies will be required to prepare and publish water resources management plans once water companies are under a statutory duty to prepare and maintain such plans under the Water Resources Act 1991.
The Regulations were made jointly for England and Wales to ensure a consistent approach is applied in both countries, and in particular to those water companies that operate in both England and Wales, and take account of the devolution settlement in respect of the 1991 Act and also ensure that the Secretary of State is made aware of representations on any draft water resources management plans of a water undertaker whose area is mainly but not wholly in Wales, and the National Assembly of Wales of any representations on any water resources management plans of a water undertaker whose area includes any part of Wales but is not wholly or mainly in Wales or who abstracts water in Wales but whose area is wholly outside Wales.
Therefore, water companies which supply or receive water, or have a shared water resource and water companies identified as a possible supply or potential partner for the development of new water resources, have been added to the list of statutory consultees. This is to ensure that all possible sources of supply are consulted upon in a water company’s draft water resources management plan.
