Section 39C: Drought plans: provision of information

Water Industry Act 1991 · 1991 c. 56View on legislation.gov.uk

Part III: WATER SUPPLY — chapter I: GENERAL DUTIES OF WATER UNDERTAKERS etc

It shall be the duty of each water supply licensee to provide the water undertaker with such information as the water undertaker may reasonably request for the purposes of preparing or revising its drought plan.

In the event of any dispute between a water undertaker and a water supply licensee as to the reasonableness of the water undertaker's request under subsection (1) above, either party may refer the matter for determination by the Secretary of State, and any such determination shall be final.

For the purposes of paragraph (b) of section 37B(1) above as applied by section 39B(5) above, the water undertaker shall identify in its statement under that paragraph any information—

provided by a water supply licensee pursuant to subsection (1) above; and
contained in the water undertaker's draft drought plan,

which the water supply licensee has (at the time of providing it to the water undertaker) specifically identified as being, in the water supply licensee's opinion, commercially confidential.

The water undertaker shall not use any unpublished information save for the purpose of facilitating the performance by it of any of the duties imposed on it by or under this Act, any of the other consolidation Acts or the Water Act 1989.

In subsection (4) above—

"unpublished information" means confidential information which—
is provided to the water undertaker by a water supply licensee under this section;
relates to the affairs of any individual or to any particular business; and
by virtue of section 37B above as applied by section 39B(5) above, is not published;
"the other consolidation Acts" has the same meaning as in section 206 below.

The duties of a water supply licensee and a water undertaker under this section shall be enforceable by the Secretary of State under section 18 above.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.