Technical provision

I beg to move Amendment 41, in Clause 46, page 29, line 18, at end insert—

‘(a) Section 42 comes into effect not later than three months after Royal Assent.’.

With this it will be convenient to discuss Government Amendment 164.

I am pleased that we are making such good progress. Our Amendment is fairly straightforward. Its specific purpose is to require the Government to implement the provisions covering surface water charging within three months of the Bill becoming law. Following last summer’s flooding, we have made progress and it is timely to introduce those provisions. That was a new form of flooding, and surface water charging is pertinent.

Water companies have already planned their charging schemes for next year in the expectation that surface water charging will not be in place, but if implementation is delayed beyond the summer, companies’ ability to plan the following year’s charging schemes will be impeded. We would welcome certainty from the Minister about when the changes will take place, and that would be welcome to the companies concerned.

The amendment would also have an impact on customers, who have already had a long wait for a solution. The Government could have acted before last summer, but chose to wait for the Bill. I am sure that customers would also welcome clarity about when they may expect their Bills to be reduced.

That is the purport of amendment 41, and I have great pleasure in inviting the Committee to support it in the spirit in which it was moved.

I appreciate the spirit in which Amendment 41 was moved. It would automatically bring Clause 42 into effect if the Secretary of State or Welsh Ministers do not commence the new provision within three months of Royal Assent. I recognise the need for early commencement of clause 42, but it would still be too late to use it to introduce concessions for the next charging year of 2010-11 even if Royal Assent were obtained within the next month.

The charging year for water Bills is from April to March, and bills for unmeasured customers are sent out even before that. That follows the granting of Ofwat approval of charging schemes that require companies to prepare them by September each year and on which there is consultation with the Consumer Council for Water. Final approval of charging schemes is usually obtained in February, before the bills are sent out.

The amendment would not cause a problem in Wales, although one of the four English water and sewerage companies, Severn Trent Water, supplies many customers in Wales. It would also not cause a problem for companies that do not intend to move to site area charging. However, the four companies that already charge in that way would either have to work out a hasty timetable with Ofwat to introduce new schemes by April 2010, or carry out an expensive bill-adjustment exercise to meet the timetable proposed in the amendment.

We intend to consult on the draft guidance that has gone out to the Committee when the Bill has completed its parliamentary stages, and to commence the relevant part of the provision in plenty of time for water companies that want to move to area-based charges and/or introduce concessionary schemes for the 2011-12 financial year to develop their schemes. Given that clarification of why it is nigh on impossible to achieve the objective in the amendment, I hope that the hon. Lady will withdraw it.

Government amendment 164 is a technical amendment to ensure that the power to commence provisions in the Bill is consistent with devolution arrangements. The general position is that the Secretary of State has power to commence provisions in relation to England, and Welsh Ministers in relation to Wales. This is provided for in clause 46(3)(b) and (c). Exceptions are set out in clause 46(3)(a), (d) and (e). This amendment sets out further exceptions to that general position, which have been agreed with the Welsh Assembly Government and were deemed necessary properly to reflect the basis on which the clause, to which the commencement provision relates, is devolved. So it is a technical issue.

I thank the Minister for his clarification. It was an important point and we welcome the opportunity to debate it. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Amendment made: 164, in clause 46, page 29, line 19, leave out paragraph (a) and insert—

‘(a) sections 22(1)(a), 28, 29, 34 (and Schedule 5), 40, 43 and paragraph 42 of Schedule 4 come into force in accordance with provision made by order of the Secretary of State,

(aa) section 22(1)(b) and (2) and sections 23 to 26, so far as they relate to English Committees, come into force in accordance with provision made by order of the Secretary of State,

(ab) section 22(1)(b) and (2) and sections 23 to 26, so far as they relate to Welsh Committees, come into force in accordance with provision made by order of the Welsh Ministers,

(ac) sections 35, 36, 41 and 42, so far as they relate to water or sewerage undertakers whose areas are wholly or mainly in England, come into force in accordance with provision made by order of the Secretary of State,

(ad) sections 35, 36, 41 and 42, so far as they relate to water or sewerage undertakers whose areas are wholly or mainly in Wales, come into force in accordance with provision made by order of the Welsh Ministers,

(ae) section 37, so far as it relates to orders made by a Minister of the Crown under Part 3 of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008, comes into force in accordance with provision made by order of the Secretary of State,

(af) section 37, so far as it relates to orders made by the Welsh Ministers under Part 3 of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008, comes into force in accordance with provision made by order of the Welsh Ministers,’.—(Huw Irranca-Davies.)

Clause 46, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.