We will not generally provide:
- Information the disclosure of which is prevented by law, or exempt under the Freedom of Information Act, or is otherwise properly considered to be protected from disclosure.
- Information in draft form.
- Information that is no longer readily available as it is contained in files that have been placed in archive storage, or is difficult to access for similar reasons.
Requests for information we do not hold
If you ask us for information we do not hold, we will do our best to direct you to another organisation that we think should be able to help you, and to provide you with their contact details.
We are the economic regulator of the water industry in England and Wales. Other information may be held by the quality regulators, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, or by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
DG5 registers are maintained and held by individual water companies and you should contact them directly for information concerning the register. Water company contact details can be found here on our website.
Rateable values of Properties
Rateable Values were an assessment of the annual rental value of a property. They were used by local authorities for the General Rates system of local tax between 1967 and 1990. Assessments were made by the District Valuer’s office of the Inland Revenue and, at the time, households were able to appeal the Rateable Value of their property.
In 1990 the General Rates system was replaced by the Community Charge (Poll Tax) and the District Valuer’s office was disbanded. As a result, households could no longer appeal the Rateable Value of their property.
Subsequently the Community Charge was replaced by the current Council Tax system which is based on banded values of properties. However, legislation prevents the use of the Council Tax register from being used for any other purpose. Therefore water companies cannot use Council Tax register to set water bills.
Water companies are required by law to maintain a list of Rateable Values which they cannot amend, and which they must use for setting bills for unmetered customers.
More information on Rateable Values and how they are used to set bills can be found in this leaflet from CCWater.
Leakage data
We do not collect statistical information in relation to leakage. This information can be found on the Discover Water website.
Surveillance Camera Self-Assessment (Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s Office)
Ofwat is not currently required to complete the self-assessment as it does not own the premises it operates from and is not the data controller for the images created by any equipment used on the premises.
Requests for information we have obtained from a third party
Third parties include for example, water companies or organisations tendering for a contract. We encourage third parties to publish their own information themselves.
If you ask us for information supplied to us by a third party we will apply the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemptions and Environmental Information Regulations exceptions as necessary to protect the public interest. And we normally inform third parties before we release any of their information that is not currently in the public domain.
In the case of water companies, we collect some information from them under the provisions of the Water Industry Act 1991 (WIA91), The WIA91 also normally prevents us from disclosing this information without their consent. If the WIA91 prevents us from disclosing information, then the FOIA also says that we do not have to disclose the information.
Refusal to provide information
If we decide not to release the information you ask us for, and you are unhappy with our decision, you should first ask us to carry out an internal review.