WSL guidance for reporters on reviewing access codes: Letter to RDs

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24 August 2005

Dear Regulatory Director

WSL GUIDANCE FOR REPORTERS ON REVIEWING ACCESS CODES

Further to my letter of 5 July 2005, which provided guidance for reporters on indicative access prices, this letter is to advise you that we also require your reporter to review your access code. Our guidance to reporters is set out below.

Your company reporter needs to submit a report to us within two weeks of your access code being published. The deadline for publication is 15 September 2005, so your reporter will need to report to us by 29 September.

The reporter should scrutinise your access code and comment on it to us. Your reporter should:

Confirm or otherwise that the company's access code follows both our access code guidance and the access code template we issued on 24 June 2005;
Review and comment on the reasons given by the company (if any) for non-compliance with (by which we mean taking a different approach or omitting a reference to) the template or our guidance;
Examine and comment on the reasonableness of any sections included in the company's code that are supplementary to the template or our guidance;
Identify any areas of the company's access code where procedures and policy are not fully explained (for example where contact details have been provided rather than a detailed explanation of a procedure/policy);
Confirm or otherwise that the company's proposed application process complies with chapter 3 of our access code guidance. If it deviates, the reporter should review and comment on the company's reasons for non-compliance.

Your reporter should include the hours and costs of this work in their report, which should be sent to Hayley Purcell at hayley.purcell@ofwat.gsi.gov.uk. I have copied this letter to your reporter. Enquiries on this guidance should be referred initially to Elaine Chatham on (0121) 625 3650.

Yours sincerely

Beryl Brown
Head of Competition Policy

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