Explanatory note

Section 19 of the Reservoirs Act 1975 provides that, where a civil engineer makes a report relating to a large raised reservoir and includes in that report recommendations as to measures to be taken in the interests of safety at the reservoir or as to the time when the reservoir should next be inspected, the undertakers may, if they wish to dispute any such recommendation, refer it to another engineer, called a “referee”, who will investigate their complaint.

These rules make provision for the time within which a referee may be appointed by agreement between the engineer who made the recommendation and the undertakers and, in default of agreement, as to the time within which and the manner in which the Secretary of State is to be requested to make the appointment. They also provide how the referee is to investigate the complaint and for the payment of the costs of that investigation by the undertakers.

The rules made under the Reservoirs (Safety Provisions) Act 1930, which make similar provision in relation to referees appointed under that Act, as continued in force by section 23(2) of the Reservoirs Act 1975, are to cease to have effect in Wales, Scotland and the non-metropolitan counties in England when sections 19 and 23 are brought into force by order on 1st April 1986 (S.I. 1986/466). The 1930 Act and the rules made under it will continue to apply in the metropolitan counties and in Greater London until those sections are brought into force in those areas.