Seòmar agus comataidhean

Agenda item 2 is an evidence session on Scottish Water’s annual report and accounts for 2021-22. I refer members to papers on the item by the clerk and the Scottish Parliament information centre.

On 31 May 2022, Scottish Water published its annual report and accounts for 2021-22, setting out its financial and operational performance for the previous year. Earlier this year, the committee agreed to hold a one-off evidence session with Scottish Water to consider its annual report. It agreed to include at this session representatives from Business Stream and the Water Industry Commission for Scotland to explore broader questions on water and sewerage in Scotland.

I welcome the panellists who join us today: Dame Susan Rice, chair of Scottish Water; Douglas Millican, chief executive of Scottish Water; Peter Farrer, chief operating officer of Scottish Water; Alan Sutherland, chief executive of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland; and Johanna Dow, chief executive of Business Stream.

We thank you all for accepting our invitation. We move straight to questions, which the deputy convener, Fiona Hyslop, will start off.

Only this morning.

Susan, would you like to give an opening statement?

Well, not quite, because another person was offered the opportunity to make an opening statement. Alan Sutherland, do you want to do so?

Before we move on, I ought to declare that I am a customer of Business Stream. I would like to ask Johanna Dow how Business Stream does all its meter readings. Are they done manually by people who go out to customers? If so, are there plans to streamline that in the future?

Sorry, Mark—can we hear from Peter Farrer in answer to your question? After that, I would really like to hear from Alan Sutherland—I am giving him prior warning—if he would like to add anything, because he may have a role in that regard.

My final question is about staffing costs. Wages and salaries increased from £168.7 million to £173.4 million, which I understand to be an increase of roughly 3 per cent. Where do you predict the figure will be after addressing the cost of living crisis? Will it be considerably higher? When do you negotiate wages and agree staff costs?

The flipside is that Scottish Water could ask the Scottish Government for more money—if it had it—because it is not getting the investment from revenue to allow it to carry out various projects.

I will let Jackie Baillie ask another question, if she is very quick.

Thank you for clarifying that. I thought that I was off track there.

Okay. All that I can say is that I am not going to play cards with you, because you kept a very straight face when I obviously made an error.

I will go back to the deputy convener, who perhaps would like to ask her question again.