12Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland
(1)After section 67 of the [1994 c. 39.] Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 (in this Part of this Act referred to as “the 1994 Act”) there is inserted—
“The Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland
67AWater Industry Commissioner for Scotland and Consultative Committees
(1)There shall be a Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland (in this Part of this Act referred to as “the Commissioner”), who shall have the general function of promoting the interests of customers of the new water and sewerage authorities.
(2)In respect of each new water and sewerage authority there shall be a Water Industry Consultative Committee, which shall have the general function of advising the Commissioner on the promotion of the interests of customers of that authority.
(3)In exercising his functions in relation to an authority the Commissioner shall have regard to any advice given to him by the Consultative Committee in respect of that authority.
(4)The Secretary of State may, after consulting the Commissioner, give him directions of a general or specific character as to the exercise of his functions; and the Commissioner shall comply with those directions.
(5)Schedule 9A to this Act (which makes further provision about the Commissioner and Water Industry Consultative Committees) shall have effect.”
(2)The Scottish Water and Sewerage Customers Council is dissolved.
(3)For the purposes of the [S.I. 1981/1794.] Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981—
(a)the functions of the Customers Council are to be treated as transferring to the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland on the date on which this section comes into force, and
(b)the transfer is to be treated as the transfer of an undertaking,
and the Regulations shall apply to the transfer (whether or not they would apply apart from this provision).
(4)Before Schedule 10 to the 1994 Act there is inserted, as Schedule 9A, the Schedule set out in Schedule 2 to this Act.