Call Off Trade Effluent Advice

To build resilience, we require two call off Contracts.

This is largely to mitigate against suitable resources not being available or in case there are any actual or potential conflicts of interest that cannot be resolved.

The objective of this tender process is to ensure that Ofwat has call off services in place, which will provide the expertise and technical support needed in order to fulfil its statutory functions in respect of deciding trade effluent appeals.

This will most likely take the form of the Contractor producing written reports which may include: a. technical grounds and justification for trade effluent consent conditions in dispute; b. recommendations as to whether trade effluent consent conditions are reasonable; and c. if appropriate, recommended new trade effluent consent conditions.

Any timescales for deliverables will be case specific.

We will typically require a report to be provided first followed by any potential review of draft decision responses.

The Customer may also require ad-hoc written and telephone advice on an informal basis on individual appeals.

Further, any trade effluent appeal is considered OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE and, as such, discretion must be applied.

The call off Contract will be for 3 years from the date the Contract commences.

Scope of work As set out above, we have a duty to consider trade effluent appeals.

These vary from appeals against decisions to reject trade effluent consent applications through to appeals against variations to existing trade effluent consents.

The consent conditions which may be appealed against could include, amongst other conditions: • Daily volume (measured in mᵌ/day); or • Daily Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) load (measured in kg/day).

We typically look to appoint expertise to provide analysis on the rationale for conditions included in trade effluent consents.

This will include studying the technical justifications, as well as suggesting alternative solutions for the parties and recommendations.

If we fail to make a decision, or make a poor decision, there will be a negative impact on Ofwat's reputation and we may be legally challenged by either party in the dispute.