Water services - investing in and paying from 2027: consultation

3. Responding to this consultation

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that Scottish Water continues to provide good quality and affordable water and wastewater services.

Your views will inform the Ministerial Objectives for the next regulatory period which will set out the required standards of service and priority areas for investment.

We are also seeking your views on how those services and investment are paid for through the Principles of Charging.

We have published a partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) to support this consultation. The Consumer Duty section considers the impact of the Ministerial Objectives and Principles of Charging on consumers.

We have undertaken a screening exercise to determine what other impact assessments are required. As the Ministerial Objectives and Principles of Charging may have implications for inequalities, a Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment will be required. As demonstrated throughout this paper, we have considered how to address inequalities as we have developed the Ministerial Objectives and Principles of Charging. Further details can be found in the partial BRIA and a Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment will be published alongside the final BRIA by October 2026.

If you would like to comment on the issues raised in this paper please respond via Citizen Space. The closing date for responses is 30 March 2026.

Information gathered from this process will inform Ministers' final decisions on the Ministerial Objectives and Principles of Charging that should apply to the Scottish water industry in the next regulatory period.

We welcome early responses.