Part 1

Water industry
CHAPTER 4

Retail exit: non-household premises

Eligible licensees
44
1
Exit regulations may—
a
make provision for a relevant undertaker to specify in its exit application the eligible licensee or licensees to which it proposes to transfer a part of its undertaking;
b
make provision for the WSRA to direct one or more eligible licensees to accept the transfer of a part of the relevant undertaker’s undertaking.
2
In this Chapter an “eligible licensee” is a company—
a
that has a water supply licence with a retail authorisation or a sewerage licence with a retail authorisation, or both, and
b
that has elected to be an eligible licensee for the purposes of this Chapter.
3
Exit regulations may—
a
provide for an eligible licensee to be specified in an exit application only if the licensee agrees to be so specified;
b
provide for the WSRA to give notice before giving a direction under subsection (1)(b);
c
provide for an eligible licensee to temporarily suspend an election under subsection (2)(b) so that it may not be given a direction under subsection (1)(b).
4
Exit regulations may make provision about electing to be an eligible licensee, and may in particular—
a
provide for a company to satisfy such criteria as are set out in a code published by the WSRA before the company may elect to be an eligible licensee;
b
provide for the WSRA to assess whether a company satisfies those criteria;
c
provide for the WSRA to publish a code setting out—
i
the criteria mentioned in paragraph (a), and
ii
how it conducts such assessments;
d
provide for the WSRA to comply with the code in making such assessments.
5
Exit regulations may—
a
allow an eligible licensee, to which a transfer of a part of a relevant undertaker’s undertaking is proposed to be made, to be a company associated with the undertaker,
b
require the eligible licensee to which such a transfer is made to be such a company, or
c
prohibit such a transfer being made to such a company.
6
For the purposes of this section, a relevant undertaker is associated with an eligible licensee if one of them is a subsidiary of the other or both are subsidiaries of the same body corporate.