In August 2013 water companies in England and Wales sent Ofwat information to help it to prepare for the 2014 price review.
However, Ofwat has said there were a number of issues with companies’ data, including incorrect units or price bases; data cells incomplete and missing commentaries as well as “unexplained changes” in the base level or trends in data.
In addition, Ofwat said it made it an “explicit requirement” for companies to provide commentary on one aspect of their data submissions, but more than half of the companies failed to provide this commentary.
According to Ofwat, if companies make “significant errors and mistakes” in their business plan data, it would affect how it categorises their plan.
“As a minimum is it is unlikely that we will categorise such plans as ‘enhanced’ and we may require them to substantially rework their plan,” said the regulator.
Ofwat added: “As a matter of urgency, we suggest that companies assess the effectiveness of their quality assurance processes. Where necessary companies should put in place substantially improved quality assurance processes to ensure that their business plans are properly supported by robust data.”