15 October 2004
Job cuts at Scottish Water could put public safety at risk, the water regulator for Scotland has warned.
Tim Hooton said this week that the water quango should not continue to cut jobs without making sure the public was protected.
Scottish Water has shed around 1,000 jobs over the past three years and further cuts are planned. The regulator said: 'It's my concern that the protection of public health is absolutely paramount and that these manpower cuts don't happen before they have the electronic telemetry and early warning systems in place to make up for the work that used to be done manually.'
The industry also received a reprimand from Environment Minister Ross Finnie over Hooton's disclosure that Scottish Water did not complete 6.6% of obligatory tests last year. According to the regulator, samples were lost in the Scottish Water computer system.
A Scottish Water spokesman said changes as a result of the merger of IT systems from the former water boards had created some disruption, causing the authority to fall behind on its schedule of sampling.
PFoct2004
