Local authority role

The Private Water Supplies (England and Wales) Regulations 2009 place a duty on the council to assess the risks associated with each private supply, and to periodically sample the water for contamination (single dwellings on a single source supply are excluded from this unless they request otherwise).

Charges for any sampling the we carry out are given below and within the Private Supplies Regulations.

Breakdown of costs

Activity

Maximum charge permitted*

Our Charges

Comments

Risk assessment

£500

£25 per hour

Minimum charge £50

Sampling

£100

£25 an hour

 Charge for visit and to take sample

Investigation

£100

£25 an hour + any analysis costs

Carried out in the event of test failure.  Can be substituted by risk assessment

Authorisation

£100

£25 per hour

Application by owner of supply for permission to breach a standard temporarily whilst work is carried out

Under regulation 10 (domestic supplies)

£25

Analysis costs incurred

 Where a supply provides < 10 m3 or < 50 people per day and is used for domestic purposes

Check monitoring (commercial supplies)

£100

Analysis fees incurred up to max permitted

 Check monitoring is carried out to ensure that water complies with the standards. Where possible it should be carried out at the same time as any requirement for Audit monitoring, to keep costs down.

Audit monitoring (commercial supplies)

£500

Analysis fees + cost of check monitoring up to max permitted

 Additional parameters sampled less often to ensure the water complies with all safety standards.

*The maximum permissable costs shown are taken from the regulations

Local authorities must also identify private water supplies and register their details using the following questionnaire.

Further information

Further information relating to private water suppies is available from:

Drinking Water Inspectorate – which is responsible for assessing drinking water quality in England and Wales

For further information please contact environmental health.