Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that the automatic compensation South West Water has announced for customers affected by Storm Goretti is funded from the company’s profits and reductions in executive bonuses; and whether she will require this compensation funding to be independently audited to ensure full transparency and compliance.

Customers affected by Storm Goretti will receive payments under the Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS). These payments come from a company's current operating expenditure and are not paid for through a future increase in customer bills.

The standards, outlined in the GSS, set out a baseline for customer service in the water sector. They include providing timely restoration of water supply following an interruption, responding to written complaints and managing the risk of sewer flooding.

Ofwat has previously published summaries of the GSS framework on its website (see here and here). Companies report on GSS payments in their Annual Performance Reports and submit these figures to Ofwat. These reports are independently audited, and Ofwat uses them to inform its work.