Drinking water quality
All drinking water in the UK has to comply with stringent standards set by the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations, which incorporate the requirements of the European Drinking Water Directive.
Compliance in England and Wales is strictly monitored by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI). The DWI independently reviews all water companies' test results and audits their water quality testing laboratories.
DWI publishes an annual report which summarises the water quality standards achieved by regions and individual companies. This allows consumers to check their water supplier's performance and to find out about events and incidents that have been notified to the DWI.
Each year, we carry out approximately 120,000 tests on around 13,000 samples taken from every point in our supply system. Water sources, treatment works, storage reservoirs and randomly selected customer taps all come under scrutiny. We regularly achieve more than 99.5 per cent compliance with industry standards.
Our laboratory is UKAS accredited, an internationally recognised quality standard which covers all aspects of activity from sampling and analysis through to reporting the results.
The quality of your drinking water
