The Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

Appointment of relevant undertakers

13.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this Chapter, a company may be appointed—

(a) by the Department; or

(b) with the consent of or in accordance with a general authorisation given by the Department, by the Authority,

to be the water undertaker or sewerage undertaker for any area.

(2) Without prejudice to the obligation of a company holding an appointment under this Chapter to comply with the conditions of its appointment, the appointment of a company to be the water undertaker or sewerage undertaker for any area shall have the effect, while the appointment remains in force—

(a) of requiring the company to perform any duty imposed by or under any statutory provision on an undertaker of the relevant description (that is to say, a water undertaker or, as the case may be, sewerage undertaker);

(b) of authorising the company, for the purposes of, or in connection with, the carrying out of any of the functions of an undertaker of the relevant description, to exercise any power conferred by or under any statutory provision on an undertaker of that description;

(c) of requiring statutory provisions authorising or requiring anything to be done in relation to an undertaker of the relevant description to be construed as authorising or requiring that thing to be done in relation to that company; and

(d) of requiring other references in any statutory provision to an undertaker of the relevant description, or to the area of that undertaker, to be construed, so far as necessary for the purposes of, or in connection with, the carrying out by that company of the functions of an undertaker of that description, as references to that company or, as the case may be, to that area.

(3) The appointment of a company to be a relevant undertaker shall be by service on the company of an instrument in writing containing the appointment and describing the area for which it is made.

(4) A single instrument may contain the appointment of a company to be the sewerage undertaker for an area and the appointment of the same company to be the water undertaker for the whole or any part of that area or for an area which includes the whole or any part of that area.

(5) A company shall not be appointed to be a water undertaker or a sewerage undertaker unless it is a limited company.

(6) As soon as practicable after making an appointment under this Chapter, the Department shall send a copy of the appointment to the Authority.