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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of compensation for water supply interruption in the Guaranteed Standards Scheme.

Strengthened protection and compensation for households and businesses was announced as part of the Government’s initial steps towards ending the crisis in the water sector. As such, the government confirmed on 17 December 2024 that water customers around the country will benefit from significantly higher payments to compensate them for water company service failures – including supply interruptions – under reforms to the Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS).

Following our public consultation, the Government is now bringing forward secondary legislation increasing compensation to double the previous amounts or more and introducing new standards to broaden the scope of the scheme, underscoring our commitment to hold companies to account and stand up for consumers.