Water (Special Measures) Act 2025

10 Requirement for Ofwat to have regard to climate change etc

In section 2 of the Water Industry Act 1991—

(a) after subsection (4) insert—

“(4A) In exercising or performing any such power or duty in accordance with those provisions, the Authority must also have regard to the need to contribute towards achieving compliance by the Secretary of State with the relevant environmental target duties, where the Authority considers that exercise or performance to be relevant to the making of such a contribution.

(4B) The “relevant environmental target duties” means—

(a) the duty in section 1 of the Climate Change Act 2008 (UK net zero emissions target), and

(b) so far as the exercise or performance concerned relates to appointment areas wholly or mainly in England, the duty in section 5 of the Environment Act 2021 (other environmental targets);

and for that purpose an “appointment area” is an area for which an appointment is held under Chapter 1 of Part 2.”;

(b) in each of subsections (6A), (6B) and (7), for “(4)” substitute “(4A)”.