Water Industry Investment Group minutes: December 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Darren Knox, Scottish Government (SG), Chair
• Rosemary Greenhill, SG
• Jo Blewett, SG
• James Simpson, SG
• Paul Boyle, SG
• Simon Parsons, Scottish Water (SW)
• Rob Mustard, SW
• Wendy Kimpton, SW
• Aileen MacKenzie, SW
• David Reynolds, Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR)
• David Satti, Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS)
• Colin McNaughton, WICS
• Gail Walker, Consumer Scotland
• David Harley, Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

Apologies

• Alex Plant, SW
• Rachel Harding-Hill, SEPA
• Matt Bower, DWQR

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

Darren Knox opened the meeting.

The group would like to pass on thanks to Matt Bower who is leaving DWQR for his input to the group to date. 

Review of open actions from previous WIIG meeting

Darren Knox outlined outstanding and completed actions within the action log. 

Outstanding action 

• 24.07 – Ongoing

Closed since WIIG meeting on 17/09/25

• 24.04
• 24.06
• 25.01
• 25.02
• 25.03
• 25.04
• 25.05
• 25.06
• 25.07
• 25.08
• 25.09
• 25.10

Working group report, updates from Joint Development Groups (JDGs) and hot issues

Working Group Report

• corrections to be made to the Working Group paper.
• the working group discussed the Londornoch scope change. The working group was not content to endorse the proposals. Scottish Water are to address the working group’s comments and bring the paper back to the working group
• a deep dive was held on the completion programme with next set November 2026
• task & finish group exploring the reporting requirements for WIIG in 2027-33 and considering how water into supply can be included in reporting
• improving urban waters route map update, paper should reflect that the baseline does not meet SEPA’s expectations

Scarcity

• scarcity highlighted - water resources in line with historic averages except in the east, a localised advertising campaign taking place in Dundee

Risk Reporting 

Risk reporting process update highlighted from the SW/DWQR JDG. From March interim reporting practice will be delivered.

Hot Issues

Procurement - SW provided an update on the procurement of  Delivery Vehicle 4 (DV4) and its current delivery vehicles. In standstill period and can provide update to group in March.

Actions

• 26.01 – SG Corrections to Working Group (WG) Paper
• 26.02 – SW update on DV4 at next meeting. 

WICS annual report on Scottish Water’s performance

WICS presented annual report. 

Group raised

• what can be done to mitigate cost inflation rising faster than the inflation applied to charges
• 17/18 prices can be hard to communicate to external parties
• where risks sit in relation to rising prices
• how were the metrics “baselines” and outputs developed/decided

Action 26.03 – SW to provide outputs data to this group or WG next quarter.

Progress report of performance against the Committed List and update on Strategic Review 2021-27 (SR21) Unsatisfactory Intermittent Discharge (UID) programme

Paper discussed

• there was a discussion around how gate 100 is used to measure progress, with Scottish Water wanting to give sense of what that means. E.g. the Ayrshire resilience project was delivering benefits to customers in March 25 but gate 100 was not achieved until October. While not at gate 100 the risk was mitigated through years of investment
• Scottish Water highlighted significant health and safety (H&S) incident
• the Scottish Government noted that two completion projects are yet to start on site and that the deep dive at the working group indicated there were four
• WICS queried the source of the issues in achieving gate 100 and were advised by Scottish Water that this is largely due to commissioning
• WICS queried what impact this was having on forecast costs versus outturn and what can be done to de-risk before projects start on site. Scottish Water advised that the Investment Forecast Against Commitment (IFAC) metric shows that projects are coming in under the committed budget

Group content to publish WIIG 26-25-02 report.

UID Programme

• discussed at WG 
• Scottish Water exchanging letters with SEPA
• SEPA - teams working well on substation process, shortfall is of concern
• WICS - useful to understand what has changed to lead to revised baseline
• it was noted that this programme could provide a useful case study for monitoring changes to the investment baseline in Strategic Review 2027-33 (SR27) via the revised Investment Prioritisation and Planning Framework (IPPF)

Action 26.04 - SW to clarify why the report shows two completion projects yet to start on site given the deep dive at the working group indicated there were four.

Progress report on interventions to meet the needs on the Development List and transfers to the Committed List

Papers discussed

• WICS noted that they had consultants review the Black Esk project and placed on record thanks to Scottish Water for engagement throughout process. Review noted 90% increase in costs, which were generally accepted. However, two areas not fully explained - £7m mechanical and £14m related to contaminated land
• Scottish Water acknowledged receipt of report and indicated a deeper dive due to take place at the SW/WICS JDG
• the Scottish Government queried if rising costs were due to scope change or risks. Scottish Water confirmed that it is both but that the design of DV4 will help with this

Group content to publish WIIG 26-25-04 report, subject to action 26.05. 

Action 26.05 - SW to clarify the description of outputs in paper WIIG 26-25-04.

Update from IPPF task & finish group

It was agreed that one hour should be allocated at the next meeting for an update on the revised IPPF.

Action 26.06 – SG to ensure agenda for next WIIG meeting includes update on revised IPPF

Update on International Water Association (IWA) Congress in Glasgow    

Alan Thomson, Head of Corporate affairs at Scottish Water, presented on the International Water Association’s World Water Congress & Exhibition in Glasgow October 2026.

• SEPA and DWQR confirmed they are keen to be engaged. There was a discussion that sewer overflows could become a hot topic at the event
• Consumer Scotland were keen to understand the story the event is trying to tell and how learnings will be captured. Scottish Water explained the event provides an opportunity to promote the partnership and collaborative approach in Scotland. The organisers are also keen to create a space for community voices
• the Scottish Government highlighted that the event provides an opportunity to communicate messaging around behaviour change

Action 26.07 - SG to engage with the climate hubs around the IWA congress.

Any other business 

• actions confirmed.
• date of next meeting to be confirmed
• next issue of Clann Magazine is due to be published
   

Water Industry Investment Group minutes: December 2025

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