Mr. Barry Deane:

On the local authority role with the private group water schemes sector, the local authority is actively involved as the water service authority for the group water schemes sector and has been since the mid-1990s. A review is currently being carried out of the best approach to deliver that service. Whether a shared service might be considered is a business case being examined at present. It is probably pertinent at this time when we are talking about the roles, particularly the monitoring and the water service authority element of it. It fits nicely in with that. The review needs to take account of it.

I should mention the work we are involved in with regard to source protection. While enforcement is certainly needed, in many cases we actively try to engage with the communities to try to get community buy-in. We are probably unique in that sense. The group water scheme sector is owned by the communities the schemes serve so we have been engaged with a number of projects. The local authorities water and communities office, LAWCO, has been involved with a number of projects with us and we have plans for further projects in this area. We should try to create a behavioural change within the catchment rather than rely solely on the enforcement element. That will be a key issue into the future.