Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999

Scope and application[edit]

Regulation 3 sets out the circumstances in which the Regulations apply to a water fitting.^[2] Regulation 4 is the substantive requirement: a water fitting must be of an appropriate quality and standard and suitable for the circumstances in which it is used, and must not cause waste, misuse, undue consumption, contamination or erroneous measurement of water.^[3]

The Regulations apply from the point at which water is supplied, which means they bind the customer's own pipework as well as fittings installed by a contractor. Because a supply pipe is the part of the service pipe not vested in the undertaker,^[4] the obligations in practice fall on the property owner for everything from the vesting boundary inwards.

Notification[edit]

Regulation 5 requires advance notification to the water undertaker of certain installation work, and allows the undertaker to consent with or without conditions.^[5] Notifiable work includes categories of installation where the risk of contamination or waste is higher. Work carried out by an approved contractor is treated differently, which is the mechanism by which contractor approval schemes reduce the administrative burden of routine work.

Schedules[edit]

Schedule 1 sets out the fluid categories, a five-level classification of the risk a fluid presents if it were to flow back into the supply.^[6] The category assigned to an installation determines the standard of backflow protection required for it.

Schedule 2 contains the detailed requirements, covering materials and substances in contact with water, protection from freezing and damage, backflow prevention, stopvalves, and the requirements applying to specific appliances.^[7] Most day-to-day compliance questions in domestic plumbing resolve to a paragraph of Schedule 2.

Relationship to other regimes[edit]

The Regulations extend to England and Wales. Scotland has its own instrument, the Water Supply (Water Fittings) (Scotland) Byelaws 2014, and Northern Ireland the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009;^[8] water and sewerage services in Scotland are provided by Scottish Water under the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002.^[9]

Guidance on interpreting the Regulations is published by Water Regs UK,^[10] product and material approval is operated under the WRAS scheme by Water Regulations Approvals Scheme Limited,^[11] and WaterSafe operates the register of approved contractors, which Water Regs UK administers.^[12][8] None of those bodies is the enforcing authority; enforcement sits with water undertakers.