Chamber and committees

In order to save BiFab from closure in 2017, and to support delivery of SSE’s Beatrice Offshore Wind project, the Scottish Government invested £37.4 million through a combination of equity and loan facilities and converted this to a 32.4% equity stake in BiFab. A loan facility of £15 million has also been provided to support working capital.

I am concerned that the cost of locating, retrieving and providing the information would exceed the upper cost limits associated with such requests. This would also consume valuable Scottish Government time and resource, at a time when we rightly focused on working with partners to find a solution. Therefore it would be helpful if you could be more specific by contacting my office on [email protected]

I refer the member to SPICe (Bib Number - 61854).

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-31954 on 30 October 2020. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Business Stream is a subsidiary of Scottish Water and as such its financial position is consolidated into the Scottish Water accounts. Business Stream operates under a robust governance code such that it trades fully at arm’s length from the core business of Scottish Water. Household customers are not exposed to any liability that may result from Business Stream’s retail operations.

Business Stream, alongside three other retailers, is a provider of last resort (POLR) in the Scottish retail market. In the event that a retailer were to cease trading, Business Stream would, as any other POLR licensed provider, be liable towards Scottish Water for the wholesale charges and exposed to any potential customer bad debt only from the date of the transfer of customers.

Scottish Water currently estimates its capital investment expenditure to be some £590m in 2020-21. This will be kept under review as Scottish Water develops its understanding of the impact of new ways of safe working following COVID-19, and based on any further restrictions that may occur.

Contractors working on Scottish Water’s capital programme were unable to work from 23 March 2020 until the end of May in line with lockdown guidance. Since the end of May Scottish Water’s capital programme has been remobilised and most projects are now back underway. Payments to contractors have been made in line with the entitlement set out within Scottish Water’s contracts. It uses the construction industry standard Engineering and Construct Contract (NEC) suite of contracts. This includes appropriate mechanisms to pay for allowable costs incurred during the period of lockdown - for example the retention of site security, accommodation, etc… It should be noted that a significant element of Scottish Water’s supply chain staff were put onto the UK Government’s Job Retention Scheme which mitigated staff and labour costs being a cost to Scottish Water during lockdown. Scottish Water’s contract mechanisms allow for appropriate payments to be made for remobilisation and to cover the additional costs of new safe ways of working adopted in line with COVID-19 guidance.

The OECD is conducting an independent peer review of the Strategic Review of Charges (SRC) 2021-27. The peers are a group of international experts in the regulatory field and members of the OECD’s Network of Economic Regulators (NER). A report of their findings and recommendations will be produced following the publication of the Final Determination and conclusion of the SRC process.

As an independent body, the OECD’s approach to this type of work is to request a contribution to their annual budget, consistent with the extent of work being carried out and only to cover its costs. The Commission engaged the OECD through its internal authorisation process on the basis of the OECD’s international reputation for independent economic analysis and previous experience of the value of the peer review exercise. Along with the review of the Strategic Review process, the OECD has provided assistance to the Commission on applying behavioural insights to the process and input on worldwide approaches to asset renewal. The total value of the contribution made to the OECD in connection with this work over the course of 4 years is £1,003,143 Euros.

In accordance with section 29B(4) of the Water Industry Act 2002, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland published its draft determination of charges for consultation on 8 October 2020. Following a period of consultation, WICS will publish the final determination of charges in December 2020.