Nothing has happened in Parliament on the new Water Bill over the summer since its publication at the end of June and, so, this new blog has taken a break too.
That was 3 months ago but, having regard to the Commons' future Business Statement issued today when a date for Second Reading was still not announced, it looks as if Second Reading will now not be before 21 October at the earliest.
Second Reading is the stage when the principle of the Bill is mandated and its details debated in plenary session on the floor of the House before it is shunted off for detailed consideration and possible amendment in committee. Part of the committee stage can be taken on the floor of the House too, which may happen in this case though no announcement has been made about this yet.
Whilst 21 October is a good 9 full weeks before Christmas, there will then be only 33 public business sitting days in the Commons left before the House breaks for Christmas, so Second Reading will need to take place on or shortly after that date if there is to be a reasonable chance of the Committee stage, or any remaining stages in the Commons, being completed before 2014. The Bill could then still be enacted before the end of the session in May 2014 but may possibly need to be carried into the next (and final) session of this Parliament.
So what's been going on since the Bill was published?
Nothing on the Bill in Parliament but, amongst other developments, water companies will have been pretty busy preparing their business plans for PR14 whilst also receiving feedback on their draft water resources management plans. Ofwat, meanwhile, has a lot on its plate in preparing for the price review and in terms of advancing the market reform agenda. It also announced on 24 July the appointment of its new chief executive, Cathryn Ross who is currently completing the rail regulatory review at ORR. Her appointment is intended to take effect on 14 October.
Building on its 27 June consultation paper, the Government has now published (6 September) 14 draft flood insurance clauses for inclusion in the Bill and a commentary on them, Richard Benyon in the accompanying ministerial statement indicating "We had hoped to publish draft clauses during the formal consultation period that ran from 27 June to 8 August, but more time was needed to develop the detail of the proposed approach. ". The intent is to establish through the proposals:
a) a levy-funded reinsurance pool for high risk households ( known as "Flood Re"), and b) reserve powers to regulate the insurance industry by requiring insurers to each insure a certain share of a list of high flood risk properties (known as the "Flood Insurance Obligation").
The fallback powers are wanted in case Flood Re proves unworkable and if pricing in a free market proves to be unacceptable, the consequence of which could be that some households cannot obtain insurance. The Government has indicated that the draft clauses remain subject to discussion with interested parties (and with the Devolved Administrations) but that the intent is to replace the current placeholder clause in Part 4 of the Water Bill with full clauses as a Government amendment, as soon as possible during the first Committee stage of the Bill in the House of Commons.
Comments on the draft flood clauses are invited by 20 September so, if you want to do so, you have a week to get them in.
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