Commentary on Sections Part 2: New Regulatory Arrangements, Etc 133. .Sections 41 and 42: Standards of performance in relation to water supply and sewerage services.
Section 41 amends section 39 of the WIA. It extends the existing arrangement whereby the Secretary of State can make regulations in response to proposals for new or amended standards of performance only in response to a specific proposal from the Authority. The amendments made by this section will allow the Secretary of State to initiate such proposals as long as a number of criteria specified in the amended section are met.
134.A new subsection (A1) is inserted into section 39 of the WIA to allow the Secretary of State to make regulations either on application by the Authority, or otherwise under certain conditions.
135.Subsection (3) amends the list of bodies that must be served notice of an application by the Authority to include the Council and any other persons or bodies the Secretary of State may consider appropriate.
136.Subsection (6) inserts new subsections (4) – (8). These subsections allow the Secretary of State to make regulations under section 38 if no application has been made by the Authority, as long as he considers that the regulations will contribute to the attainment of policies relating to public health and the environment, or if not, that there are exceptional reasons why it is otherwise in the public interest that the regulations should be made. The subsections govern the procedure.
137.Similar amendments are made to section 96 of the WIA in relation to sewerage service, by section 42.