Water Industry Act 1991

29 Duties of customer service committees

(1) It shall be the duty of a customer service committee—

(a) to keep under review all matters appearing to the committee to affect the interests of the persons who are customers or potential customers of the companies allocated to the committee;

(b) to consult each company so allocated about such of those matters as appear to affect the interests of the customers or potential customers of that company; and

(c) to make to a company so allocated all such representations about any such matter as the committee considers appropriate.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, it shall be the duty of a customer service committee to investigate any complaint which—

(a) is made to the committee by any person who is a customer or potential customer of a company allocated to the committee or is referred to the committee by the Director under section 30 below;

(b) does not appear to the committee to be vexatious or frivolous; and

(c) relates to the carrying out by that company of any of the functions of a relevant undertaker.

(3) It shall be the duty of a customer service committee to refer to the Director every complaint which is made to the committee by any person in relation to a company allocated to the committee and consists in or amounts to—

(a) an assertion that the company is contravening or has contravened any condition of the company’s appointment under Chapter I of this Part or any statutory or other requirement enforceable under section 18 above; or

(b) a complaint which the Director would be required to investigate under section 181 below.

(4) It shall be the duty of a customer service committee, where the committee considers it appropriate to do so in connection with any such complaint as is mentioned in subsection (2) above, to make representations on behalf of the complainant to the company in question about any matter—

(a) to which the complaint relates; or

(b) which appears to the committee to be relevant to the subject-matter of the complaint;

and it shall be the duty of a customer service committee to refer to the Director or, as the case may be, back to the Director any such complaint as is so mentioned which the committee is unable to resolve.

(5) The only remedy for a breach by a customer service committee of a duty imposed on it by this section shall be the making of such a complaint to the Director as the Director is required to consider under section 30(3)(c) below.

(6) It shall be the duty of the Director to make such arrangements as he considers appropriate for facilitating the provision by one customer service committee to another of any such information as that other committee may require for any purpose relating to the carrying out of its functions.