Audits and inspections of water companies in England and Wales, and enforcement action to ensure compliance with the Water Quality Regulations—including investigation of customer complaints and incidents which affect drinking water supplies—is dealt with by the Drinking Water Inspectorate. The inspectorate was formed in 1990 to provide independent reassurance that public water supplies in England and Wales are safe and drinking water quality is acceptable to consumers.
Water companies have a duty to collect and test samples for each of the substances and organisms in the regulations, and must make the results of this testing available to their customers. The inspectorate’s role is to carry out independent checks to ensure that this testing is being performed to a high standard of quality control.
The original EU drinking water standards were implemented in England and Wales in 1989. Compliance is measured by results of tests on samples from consumers’ taps. Compliance figures for each year from 1992 to 2003 are in the following table.
Compliance (percentage) 1992 98.65 1993 98.95 1994 99.28 1995 99.45 1996 99.70 1997 99.75 1998 99.78 1999 99.82 2000 99.83 2001 99.86 2002 99.87 2003 99.88
New EU drinking water standards came into force from the end of 2003. Compliance with the new standards in England and Wales was 99.94 per cent. in 2004 and 99.96 per cent. in 2005.