The Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

Codes of practice with respect to work on private land

244.—(1) For the purposes of Article 243 it shall be the duty of every company holding an appointment under Chapter I of Part III as a relevant undertaker—

(a) as soon as reasonably practicable after its appointment takes effect, to submit to the Department for its approval a code of practice with respect to the exercise by the undertaker of any powers conferred by or under Article 220 or 222(2); and

(b) if required to do so by the Department at any subsequent time, to submit proposed modifications of that code to the Department for its approval.

(2) The Department, if it considers it appropriate to do so for the purpose of promoting what appear to it to be desirable practices with respect to the exercise, by any company holding an appointment under Chapter I of Part III as a relevant undertaker, of any powers conferred by or under Article 220 or 222(2), may at any time by order, in relation to that company—

(a) approve any code of practice with respect to the exercise of those powers which has been submitted to it (whether or not under paragraph (1)) by that company for its approval;

(b) approve any modifications of such a code which have been so submitted; or

(c) withdraw its approval for any such code or modification.

(3) A contravention of a code of practice as for the time being approved under this Article in relation to a company shall not—

(a) affect the powers conferred on that company as a relevant undertaker by this Part;

(b) of itself entitle any person to be paid any amount under paragraph (4) of Article 243; or

(c) give rise to any criminal or civil liability;

but the Authority shall take into account whether there has been any such contravention in determining whether to give a direction under that paragraph to that company and in determining the amount to which any such direction relates.

(4) The Department shall not make an order under paragraph (2) unless it has first consulted all such persons as the Department considers it appropriate to consult.

(5) The duties of a relevant undertaker under paragraph (1) shall be enforceable under Article 30 by the Department.